Uchiha Potter
by Chosha Kurenai
Summary: After Voldemort's fall, Harry was raised as an Uchiha with his cousins Sasuke and Itachi, unaware of his other heritage. How will Hogwarts deal with this kunai-weilding, Ass-kicking Uchiha Harry Potter?
1. Prologue: The Boy Who Was Named a Hero

Uchiha Potter

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

**Chosha's notes**

Hey there! Welcome to my first ever Naruto fiction. So, of course, it had to be a crossover. Tch, that is just so like me – I've been hooked on X-overs lately. Oh well. Anyway, I hope that you will enjoy it. Please review and tell me what you think.

A quick note. Japanese is featured in the story and translations will be available at the bottom of the chapter.

_Edit: Ok, I've looked back on this and noticed a few mistakes. Plus the name of the Yondaime was wrong. At the time I wrote this the first time, His name hadn't been mentioned. Pus I spelled Mikoto's name wrong. So, I thought I'd go back and make sure that things were right. So, if you want to know if I've edited anything, just look at the italics at the beginning of each chapter to see what was edited. If you don't see italics, chances are I haven't edited. Thank you to My new beta reader, Naruki-uke. Arigato gozaimasu!_

Now, onto the legal stuff.

Disclaimer: Naruto and Harry Potter are copyrights of Masashi Kishimoto and JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is fanfiction only and is not meant to be infringement on any of these copyrights

With that out of the way, read on now!

**Prologue:**

**The Boy Who Was Named a Hero**

Years ago, a dark sorcerer of great power had risen in the Wizarding World and with his followers, the death eaters, terrorized the people. With a single curse, Voldemort could strip a person of their life, drive them to insanity with pain, or control their minds. The Wizarding World was in chaos as Muggleborns and half-bloods were slain and whole families were destroyed.

In retaliation, a group who called themselves The Order of the Phoenix, lead by one Albus Dumbledore, made contact with a continent that had long been separated from the outside world and sort out the greatest Shinobi-warrior, the Hokage of Konohagakure and hired Shinobi from that hidden village in order to defeat the Dark Lord. There were many battles, with no end in sight, until a prophecy was made about a small child that could lead to the final victory of the war. However, until the time was right, this child and his parents, the Potters, were forced into hiding, until the child was old enough to take up his wand and see the end of the battle.

However, this was not meant to be. The Potters were betrayed by a man they saw as a friend and Voldemort attacked, killing both the boy's parents. In order to finish it and secure his hold on the Wizarding World, he turned his wand upon their son. Yet that spell, which had taken the lives of his parents and so many older and stronger wizards, somehow bounced back off the child and rebounded upon its originator.

Voldemort, terror of the Wizarding world, was destroyed in that one moment and the boy, who had somehow, remarkably, survived the curse with little more than a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, was from that day forth, named a hero.

His name was Harry James Potter…

**Hokage Tower, Konohagakure, the Hidden Continent**

Namikaze Minato, Yellow Flash of Konoha and Yondaime Hokage let out a sigh as he leaned back from all the paperwork in front of him. He rubbed at his temples and threw a dirty look at the still large stack of paper that graced his desk, before he sighed again, allowing himself a moment of self-pity – a luxury he didn't often have time for now that he was Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. When Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, had stepped down from his post last year and had nominated him – him! – for the position of Hokage, he had been on top of the world. It was a great honor to be named the Hokage – the strongest of all Shinobi in all of Fire Country, and Minato had immediately agreed.

Now, however, he was seriously considering murdering the old coot for even suggesting it. Even if he was the sensei of his own perverted teacher.

Grumbling under his breath for a moment as he ran a hand through his thick blonde hair, the Yondaime leaned forward again to continue writing, wondering if he was going to get a chance to actually grace his wife with his presence at all that night. However, he froze when he felt another presence in the room. Not letting himself seem startled, the young Hokage moved his hand slowly to the kunai pouch strapped to his leg and flipped it open with a finger, his blue eyes scanning the room for any signs of the perpetrator.

Nothing…

A slight shimmer out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and Minato's eyes narrowed. He sent the kunai flying. It whizzed towards the distortion, closer and closer until-

-it turned into a butterfly?

There had to be something wrong with that picture. Just plain wrong. There was only one person the Yondaime knew who would meet the attack of a flying dagger by turning it into an insect. And no, it wasn't the Aburame, although he knew that they would kill to learn such a jutsu.

He never did understand that clan…

"Yo, Dumbledore-ojii, you can come out now," Minato chuckled, not caring if he sounded rude. After all, he was friends with the old man, even if it was through Konohagakure's resident old coot and the perverted Ero-sanin that he had met the guy.

There was a slight chuckle as the air distorted a little more and a man appeared, dressed in the most extraordinary clothing that Minato had ever seen worn by someone in the hidden countries. In fact, the man was just plain out of the ordinary. He was tall, thin and, by the silvery coloring of his extremely long beard and hair that were tucked into his belt, had to be at least as old as Sarutobi – perhaps even more so. He was wearing long robes with a purple cloak resting on his shoulders that swept over the top of his high-healed buckled boots. His long nose looked as though it had been broken at least twice, on them rested a pare of half-moon spectacles. Behind them, azure eyes that seemed younger than the man was sparkled and shone. In one hand he held what looked like a polished wooden stick, while in the other he held what looked like a bundle of blankets.

"Minato, I had heard you became the Hokage from Sarutobi," Dumbledore said in slightly accented Japanese, a smile on his face as he slipped the stick somewhere within his robes. "I must say congratulations."

"Yeah, and now I'm stuck doing all this paperwork that does. Not. Seem. To. End!" the young Hokage grumbled as he glared at the paperwork again. Dumbledore's eyes followed where he was looking and chuckled as they landed on the littered paper that was in various stages of Origami construction filtering between the documents. Minato pretended not to notice, although he wasn't sure that he pulled it off very well. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Suddenly, a cold feeling hit the pit of his stomach. "Has the war taken a turn for the worse?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, no. In fact, the war has ended. We won. Voldemort was defeated." The older man gave a sigh and the twinkle in his eyes seemed to dim somewhat. "Unfortunately, there were losses. Potter James and his wife, Lily, were killed in the final battle."

Minato looked over sadly. He had not known the Potter's overly well, although he and James had hit it off quite well when they had met. "I'm sorry. They were good people. Its sad to hear that Uchiha Tsubame's son was killed." He looked back at the old man, a slight frown on his face. "But didn't you say that James-kun had a son? Harry, wasn't it? What happened to him?" he eyed the bundle in Dumbledore's arms suddenly.

The old man nodded and pulled back the blankets. Minato stared at what met his eyes.

A small child lay within the blankets, almost lost within a sea of cloth. His eyes were screwed up for a moment, as if startled by the sudden light, before startling green eyes blinked up at him innocently. However, Minato's eyes were drawn to the child's forehead, where he could still feel the shadowy traces of chakra. Under a tuft of jet-black hair was a crimson red, tender-looking, but already healed scar, shaped like a lightning-bolt that stood out against his Uchiha-pale skin.

"What on…what happened?" Minato asked as he stared at the scar. What on earth could have left traces of chakra like that after what must have taken hours for the wound to have healed? It would have to have been one powerful jutsu…

Dumbledore looked down at little Harry for a moment. "Voldemort attacked the Potters last night and managed to kill James and then Lily, from what I could gather," he said, "and then turned his wand onto young Harry here. He then used the killing curse on him."

"The Killing Jutsu?" Minato gasped, his head snapping back to the child. "Dumbledore, this kid shouldn't even be alive from what our Jonin reported of that jutsu!"

"Yes, he shouldn't have, but he did," Dumbledore said, his eyes surveying the small child for a moment. "How he survived, I cannot say, but not only did he survive, but he also managed to turn the curse back onto Voldemort. This child is the one who defeated the Dark Lord."

"Kami-sama…" Minato flopped back into his chair, staring. Just how powerful did that make this child?

He was certainly glad that no one else was there to see this. He would never live it down. Correction, if Jiraiya ever found out, he would never let him live it down. After a moment, he managed to pull himself together. "But…why have you brought him here?" he asked in confusion. "Surely he would be better off in your 'Wizarding World'?"

Surprisingly, Dumbledore shook his head. "Unfortunately, that could not be possible. You see, right now, Harry is famous in our world. He just survived a spell that no one has ever survived before. Not only that, but he defeated Voldemort. If he were in the Wizarding world right now, he would grow up in a place where ever Wizard would know his name – it would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he could walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember!"

"And that could be deadly," Minato finished, thinking of the Ninja battles he had faced before he became Hokage, where the opponent had got big-headed, overestimating their skill and died because of it.

"Before they went into hiding, James told me about his mother being from the Uchiha clan. I believe that makes him the cousin of Uchiha Fugaku, doesn't it?" Dumbledore said lightly.

Minato was temporarily thrown for a loop at the apparent change in topic. "Ara? Ano…well, yes, but what's that got to do with…" he trailed off as it started to dawn on him.

"James asked me that if something happened to them and the man they named as Godfather cannot, for some reason, look after Harry, then I was to bring him here to Konohagakure to be brought up by Fugaku-san as an Uchiha."

"Are you sure about that?" Minato asked. "I mean, the guy might be the clan's leader, but he's not the easiest man to get along with. After all, I did have an Uchiha in my Genin team years ago, so I did have to deal with the man enough to know."

"I did have some thoughts on that," Dumbledore admitted. "I had thought to take Harry to his mother's sister and husband to look after, as I know how difficult it must be to grow up to a shinobi life. However, Minerva watched them for a whole day and informed me that they hate anything out of the ordinary and would never treat Harry right. I trust Minerva's judgment."

Minato winced internally at the thought. I would have been like giving a child with the Sharingan, Byakugan or some other Kekkei Genkai to one of the villages who feared all bloodline-limits. It would have been the death of the child. He had heard of it happening many, many times.

"And here, he will at least have a family who will watch out for him, and help him to grow strong," Dumbledore concluded.

Minato sighed. "Alright, you old coot, you win. I'll talk with Fugaku and have him raise the kid. If not, I should at least be able to get him to give him to someone in the clan to raise him – especially considering that he might activate his Sharingan at some point, seeing as he does have Uchiha blood in him. Perhaps I can use that blood-dept that he owed his cousin on him…" Minato trailed off, thinking of ways that he might be able to convince the stubborn man to take his cousin's son and raise him as his own.

Dumbledore chuckled at the young Hokage's line of thought. "I'll leave that up to you," Dumbledore said as he passed Harry over the desk and into Minato's arms.

Minato looked at the boy for a moment, wondering what type of Uchiha that Harry would turn out to be. If he was anything like his father (and looking so much like him it was a distinct possibility) then Konohagakure was going to become much livelier very soon. He looked up again to see Dumbledore watching them, his eyes lacking their customary twinkle. "Thank you, my friend. I'll come back in ten years to drop of his Hogwarts letter so he could train in wand magic. But until then, don't tell him about this. I'd like for him to have a normal childhood…" suddenly, his eyes twinkled once more. "Of course, if you can call a Shinobi's life normal."

Minato laughed and waved his hand, "don't you worry about it. Just leave everything to me – except the paperwork. I have enough paperwork to do as it is."

That caused the old man to chuckle as he grasped Minato's hand. "Well, I must be going now. Unfortunately, there's still much to clean up. Goodbye."

"Ja ne, Dumbledore-ojii," Minato said, watching as the man called for something named Fawkes and in a burst of flames a brilliant red and golden bird the size of a swan appeared, perched on the man's shoulder. With a small bow towards Minato, the bird trilled, causing Minato to feel warm inside and in a burst of flames they were gone.

Minato couldn't help but chuckle, shaking his head. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that," he muttered with a laugh.

**0o0o0o0o0o**

It had taken some time, but Minato managed to make the child comfortable in a Kage Bunshin henge shaped like a crib, before he called for an ANBU on the intercom to bring one Uchiha Fugaku to the Hokage tower, yesterday. Absently, he wondered what the clan leader would do after being called this late…ano…early. Somehow, he thought that the man would be pretty pissed off with him when he got here. Especially after Minato had finished with him. He wouldn't know what hit him.

Minato snickered, his eyes sparkling in a way that would have made Dumbledore proud, amused at the thought as he pulled out his Kage seeing globe to see what would happen.

This was going to be fun.

Of course, for any normal person, this would be a rather insane thought at the moment, but the young Hokage was definitely not your normal person.

For a moment, the orb showed nothing, before finally the mist cleared and showed the Monkey-masked ANBU leaping over the roofs towards the Uchiha complex, momentarily pausing at the entrance, where he exchanged words with the two guards that stood at the gates. After a moment, he entered and moments later was pounding on the door of the Uchiha Mansion, home of the Uchiha clan leader, his wife and young son, Itachi.

There was a moment of silence when the door was finally thrown open by an irate looking Fugaku, who, if looks could kill, would have slaughtered the poor ANBU on the spot.

"What is it that you need me on such a kami-forsaken night?" he snarled, making known his irritation. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

The ANBU bowed to Fugaku in what Minato guessed was either a respectful or apologetic manner – he couldn't tell properly because the mask covered his face but for two small holes for his eyes. But then again, he didn't care all that much. He listened as the ANBU addressed the clan leader "I apologize, Uchiha-san, but I come on the orders of the Hokage. He requests you come to his office immediately."

Fugaku frowned, confusion warring with his previously annoyed expression. Unfortunately for the former emotion, it was drop kicked off a cliff and the latter emotion snapped back into place. "Do you have any idea what time it is, ANBU-san?" Fugaku demanded. "Tell him that I will report to him promptly first thing."

The monkey masked ANBU shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Hokage-sama wants to speak with you now."

The Uchiha-clan leader looked just about ready to let loose his Katon jutsu and fry the man on the spot, Minato noticed with a chuckle. However, the man closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and turned away.

"Che," he muttered and grabbed his cloak from the hanger standing close by, pulling up the hood over his head. He was just about to go outside when paused as there was a slight creaking sound of stairs and turned round to find Mikoto, his wife, halfway down the flight, a housecoat wrapped round her and a surprised look on her face.

"Ano…Fugaku-san…what's wrong here?"

"The Hokage wishes to meet with me," Fugaku told her as he fastened the cloak. "Kami-sama knows why he chose now and couldn't wait until tomorrow. Don't concern yourself, Mikoto."

Mikoto lowered her head respectfully. "Hai, Fugaku-san."

Fugaku nodded to her in return, before stepping out beside the ANBU, slamming the door behind him. He shot the other ninja a glare. "This had better be important, otherwise I'll be holding you personally responsible, ANBU-san." He said coldly.

"Duly noted, Uchiha-san," the ANBU acknowledged.

Fugaku snorted and leapt away over the rooftops towards the Hokage tower. As soon as the clan leader was out of sight, a shiver seemed to make its way down the ANBU's spine from the expression on Fugaku's face. After a moment, he shrugged it off and leapt off after the irritated Uchiha.

Minato tried his best not to burst out laughing, in case the secretary sitting outside his office thought he had cracked.

Five minutes later, irritated, cold-looking and not in the best of moods, Uchiha Fugaku stormed up the stairs to the Hokage's office behind his ANBU escort, glaring at any and all people who even glanced in his direction. The young Hokage chuckled slightly when it made the few ninja on night guard duty shift uncomfortably, or even scuttle out of the man's path. Minato watched as Fugaku reached the waiting room that is situated in front of his office, where the man eyed the secretary who looked like she was going to fall asleep, a clipboard filled with paper on her lap as she dozed and his lip curled slightly. He slammed his hands onto the desk with a loud bang, causing the half-asleep secretary to jump a mile, sending the papers in her arms everywhere, but Fugaku ignored them as she alternated between trying to acknowledge the man respectfully and scooping up her lost papers. Fugaku ignored the antics, although he thought he heard the ANBU next to him give a discrete cough, which may have been hiding a snicker. Fugaku ignored that too, although the vein throbbed at his temple. Still, he came to attention. "Uchiha Fugaku reporting, I would like to see the Hokage now," Fugaku demanded. The secretary let out a small eep and the papers fluttered to the floor once more. The ANBU's cough turned into a hacking one as he covered up his laugh. "H-hai Uchiha-san," she squeaked under Fugaku's penetrating gaze. "One moment please." She fumbled with the intercom for a moment and pressed a button. "Uchiha Fugaku-san has arrived, Hokage-sama." Letting go of the button, she turned back to Fugaku. "Okay, you can go in now, Uchiha-san. Oyasumi," the girl quickly packed her things, scabbing for the papers on the floor and bolted from the office. Fugaku snorted at the girl's actions before marching through the doors, looking determined not to impale the still sniggering ANBU.

Minato, deciding not to test his luck too much, quickly hid the orb within his desk draw and quickly made himself look like he was engrossed in his paperwork. Fugaku marched up to the desk and stood at attention.

"I am reporting as ordered Hokage-sama," the Uchiha leader snapped, making it perfectly clear that he was extremely pissed by the situation. "I am sure there is a _good_ reason you woke me up in the dead of night?" he purposely put stress on the 'good' part.

A slight smile tugged at the corners of the young Hokage's mouth, but he quickly covered it up. Best not to irritate the man any more than he already was. After all, there was little Harry to think about. Minato nodded in acknowledgment to the Uchiha, before turning to the ANBU at his side. "Thank you, Saru-san. You can go."

The ANBU seemed to perk up immediately. "Hai, Hokage-sama." He immediately made the appropriate signs and teleported from the room in a puff of smoke. Minato turned back to the clan leader once more, his face serious. Fugaku looked confused once more, the irritation on his face vanishing slowly at the expression. Well, it was well known that the young Hokage most of the time acted like a child in an adult's body. But it irked Minato a little. Dammit, he did know when to act seriously!

"Fugaku-san, I'm sorry to have brought you here so late at night and all, but it was something importance. I'm sorry to have to be the one to report this, but a few hours ago, your cousin, James, and his wife, Lily, were killed. They died protecting their clan"

Fugaku froze momentarily, before he closed his eyes with a frown, most likely in respect for the dead. However, he also seemed to have a slightly jealous expression flickering in there as well. Minato could understand. In the world of the Shinobi, there were three ways that a shinobi wished to end their days. The first was that they could die in protection of their clan or village. The second was in a suicide mission, like against the Biyu that had been rather active of late. The last was that they would die in their beds, in their sleep, away from the pain and war. However, they had come to realize that this was nothing more than a foolish dream that very, very few ever accomplished in Shinobi history. Anyone who did die in such a way was immediately thought of as lucky, and was often envied for weeks.

_You'll be the envy of Konohagakure, James-kun,_ Minato thought sadly to the now dead man. _Even me_.

Fugaku finally opened his eyes again. "So, James died. He was a good man. Even if he was never raised as a Shinobi, he still live 'the way of the ninja', just as Tsubame-oba taught him. I recall he saved my life once in the outlands." He thought for a moment, his head cocked to one side. "But I had heard that James had had a son. Harry, wasn't it? You didn't say what happened to the boy."

Minato beamed, pleased with how the conversation was going, even without his prompting. However, this didn't seem to put the man at ease at all. In fact, Fugaku now looked as though he wanted to do nothing more than run off at the expression. "Well, he's here, isn't he!"

That threw the man for a loop. "Here?"

"Yup!" Minato agreed, pointing to the henge crib next to him, making Fugaku look around the desk. "Here!"

Fugaku crashed to the floor. Minato chuckled at that. The Uchiha's head snapped up and he quickly recovered himself as much as possible. "As I recall," Fugaku said rather heatedly at the Hokage, "James did not live anywhere near this Village. How on earth did the boy get here?"

Minato hummed slightly. "Well, a good friend of James – and of mine, in fact, seeing as we met briefly when I was training with Jiraiya – dropped him off here not long ago. Albus-san had been intending to give Harry to his aunt and uncle on his mother's side. But as they do not like anything to do with 'wand-wavers' and seem to be as bad as some of those civilians in some of the other hidden countries that hate all Kekkei Genkai and such, he thought it would be a bad idea. It seems that James had mentioned you to Albus-san and had asked that if anything happened to him, and that his god-father could not take care of him for some reason, then he requested that he be brought here to Konohagakure to be placed in your care. Did he mention it to you at all?" he added, seeing the stunned look on the Uchiha's normally stoic face.

Fugaku glared at him. "What made him think that I could look after another child?" Fugaku growled, obviously annoyed by this revelation. "I have a clan to run and an heir to teach. I don't have time to look after James' brat, even if he does have Uchiha blood in him."

"But it was his last wish," Minato said, going for the guilt trip. "And James obviously trusted you enough to look after Harry and raise him as your own. Besides, it will give Itachi-kun a little responsibility in looking after a younger sibling."

Fugaku grumbled under his breath for a moment, turning away.

"Didn't you say that James saved your life once?" Minato asked, pleasantly.

_Shirk._ Fugaku froze into place.

Minato pretended not to notice as he began to inspect his fingernails. "Well, that would make a blood dept, wouldn't it? And now that poor James-kun is dead, that dept is transferred to the next in his line, which, funnily enough, would be little Harry here. It would be such a shame if the leader of one of Konoha's best and most important clans would disregard such a life-dept, wouldn't you say, Fugaku-san?" he purposely kept his tone light, seeing the way that Fugaku shifted uncomfortably, a sweat-drop appearing on his head. He continued in the same nonchalant tone. "But, no, don't worry yourself about that. I'll just call back Dumbledore-san and tell him that his last blood family refused to take him in and, the poor boy will have to be left with civilians that will most likely kill him for his abilities, but that's fine. Or, if he survived that, he might end up growing up to hate all Uchihas and vow eternal vengeance on them, but I wouldn't worry too much."

Fugaku was really looking guilty now. "All right, Hokage…"

Minato ignored him for the moment, heaving a fake sigh. "Then there's also the chance that the followers of the dark lord will come searching for him in the outlands and kill him for surviving the Killing Jutsu and defeating the wizarding world's dark lord, but-"

"Hang on, what was that?" Fugaku interrupted, staring at the child with wide eyes.

"I said, 'then there's also the chance that the followers of the dark lord will come searching for him in the outlands and kill him for surviving the Killing Jutsu and defeating the wizarding world's dark lord'" Minato repeated.

"Impossible!" Fugaku said, staring at the child. "It's just not possible…That jutsu is the ultimate killing jutsu. There's not way a kid could survive."

"Well, he did, with nothing more than a scar to show for it," Minato said, before playing his next trump card. "Well, they do say that the Uchihas all produce Prodigies and Geniuses."

"If that's correct, then he could even surpass Itachi…" Fugaku muttered, mostly to himself. "And if he can produce our bloodline, then…"

"Uh-huh. So, will you do it then, Fugaku-san? Will you him your nephew?"

Fugaku looked up at him, literally at a loss for words, trying to form the words that wouldn't come and left him mouthing wordlessly, which was a first in and of itself - and it annoyed him. Uchiha were not lost for words. Uchiha did not gape like a landed fish! However, this was all the time Minato needed to pick the kid up and, knocking his arms upwards, plopped the boy in his arms, beaming from ear to ear.

"Congratulations, you officially became a father… again!"

The Uchiha clan leader stared disbelievingly at the boy now in his arms, who stared up at him innocently, before he reached up and fondled his face with tiny fingers. Somehow, Fugaku's expression softened slightly as the child explored his face, before yawning and snuggling up to Fugaku, closing his eyes and clutching hold of Fugaku's shirt. Suddenly he caught himself and growled. It seemed like the kid had made the decision for him!

"Gah!" Fugaku blurted out in defeat. The Hokage just chuckled. "Fine! I'll blood-adopt him. Tomorrow, he will be Uchiha Harry, my second son. That should clear up my dept with Potter James."

"Absolutely," Minato agreed. "Well then, now that's decided, I think its time you head off home," Minato said happily as he grabbed hold of Fugaku's shoulders and began to steer him out of the room and through his office. "It is late after all, and I'm sure you want to show Harry his new home. So, you're dismissed. Have a nice night!" Minato said cheerfully and shut the door on his face.

Minato, grinning like an idiot, sat back down at his desk once more and chuckled. This should be interesting, to see how Harry would grow under the care of Uchiha Fugaku and his wife. If kami allowed it, Minato would take great pleasure in seeing how it would turn out.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Fugaku fervently wished he could kill the Hokage if it weren't for the fact that he would have has all the ANBU and Oinin within 100 miles on him in seconds. Muttering obscenities under his breath, he stormed off, holding the boy tightly under his cloak. Somehow he just knew he was going to regret this…

It was already starting to get light by the time he had got back to the Uchiha complex. To his surprise, when he opened the door and stepped into the mansion, he found Mikoto waiting up for him. As he stepped into the room, she stood up from the chair she had been sitting on and approached.

"Is everything all right, Fugaku-san?" she asked carefully. She looked as though she had been worried for him, even though he had specifically ordered her not to concern herself. Just like Mikoto - always so stubborn.

"Yes and no," Fugaku admitted as he pulled off his cloak and hung it up, watching out for his precious cargo that Minato had dropped him with. "Hokage-sama wanted to inform me that James and his wife had been killed last night."

Mikoto blinked in shock for a second, before she bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Fugaku-san. From what I heard of him, he was a good man."

"Aa," Fugaku admitted. He was quiet for a moment, "He also wanted to give me James' son to raise," he added before he unwrapped the blankets that covered the child's face, causing Mikoto to stand up straighter, interest alighting her dark eyes. The baby squirmed slightly and blinked up at them with bright green eyes. Hopefully eyes that would one day become Sharingan eyes. "The Hokage requests that we are to look after the boy – it was James' last wish."

Mikoto reached out to touch the child, before she hesitated. "Is that what you wish, Fugaku-san?" she asked, her eyes almost pleading. "Are we to raise him as our own?"

If Fugaku's predictions were correct, they may just have one more Prodigy son of the leader of the Uchihas. "Hai. Later, we will officially be naming him Nephew of Uchiha Fugaku."

Mikoto took him from Fugaku's arms, her eyes sparkling as she cooed to the young child, who giggled in return, clasping at her finger with a dwarfed hand. Fugaku hadn't seen her so happy since the day that Itachi had been born.

Moments later, there was a creaking sound and they all turned to see five-year-old Itachi making his way down the stairs, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Okaasan? Otosama? What's going on?"

Mikoto, beaming, turned to show her son the bundle in her arms. "Come here Itachi-chan and meet your new Ikoto."

Itachi blinked a little, before scrambling to his mother's side to look at the baby. For a moment, he stared at the baby.

The baby stared back.

Itachi reached out slowly and prodded him with a finger.

Harry giggled and prodded Itachi back – right between the eyes. Itachi frowned and prodded the boy again, only to have the boy prod him right back.

Soon a full out prodding war was going on in the middle of the room, with both of them glaring at each other as they prodded each other rapidly. Fugaku almost growled, until Itachi fell over laughing and the baby giggled. Once he had got his giggles under control, Itachi turned to his father, an uncharacteristic grin on his youthful face. "Whats his name, Otosama?"

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad after all, Fugaku thought, almost mentally sighing. That is, if he managed to keep his sanity by the end of it, it would be worth it.

"Harry," Fugaku told him. "His name is Uchiha Harry."

TBC

**Translations**

Yondaime Hokage – fourth fire-shadow

Sensei – teacher

Ojii – grandpa (also Jijii)

-Kun - suffix used between male friends and/or a superior to inferior form.

-San – a suffix meaning Mr/Ms

Ara – huh

Ano – er

Kami-sama – Lord God

Kekkei Genkai – bloodline-limit

Ja ne – bye

Hai – yes

-Sama – a suffix used for someone of a higher status than oneself

Oba – aunt

Okaasan – Mother

Otosama – father, but more respectful than Otosan

Itoko – cousin (more specifically, first cousin)

**Chosha's notes **

Please tell me what you think. Should I continue? Please review.

**Next time on Uchiha Potter:** Chapter one: Of Prodigies and Pranks

But until then, Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**

_Beta-read by: Naruki-uke_


	2. Chapter 1: Of Prodigies and Pranks

Chosha's Notes

**Chosha's Notes**

_Edit: I've done a few minor adjustments, mostly because I got Itachi's age wrong, but I sorted that out now. Of course I only quickly scanned over this, so if you do want to become my beta reader, please PM me. Thanks._

Hey there! Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm sorry for the spelling of Sasuke's mom in the last chapter. Its Mikoto not Matoko. It was a miss-type. However, from now on, I'll spell it right. Anyways…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter.

Last time on Uchiha Potter: Harry was given over to Arashi to give to Fugaku, the cousin of James Potter. Now, under the care of his Uncle, some years have passed…

**Chapter One:**

**Of Prodigies and Pranks**

Uchiha Harry, Nephew of the clan leader and in-training shinobi snickered quietly from his hiding place on top of a store roof, his deep, brilliant green eyes sparkled in anticipation as he waited for his unwilling prank subject to turn up. The person came not long later. A Chunin by the looks of him, strolling down the street and straight for the area that Harry had booby-trapped. Harry hid his mouth behind his hand to stop the urge to burst out into a fit of giggles and ruin the moment.

The chunin didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry, strolling along the street and stopping every now and again to observe something in one window or another, before making his way again, only to stop at a shop window only steps before the prank-zone.

_Ugh! Come on hurry up, jijii!_ Harry mentally griped from his hiding-place. This was the only part about pranks that Harry really, really hated – having to wait for so long for some people to actually get themselves stuck. He stopped fidgeting and leaned forwards intently as the chunin started walking again, left foot, right foot, left-

The effect was instantaneous. As the chunin attempted to take another step forward, he almost tripped as the right foot did not follow and was somehow stuck to the ground behind him. The chunin looked confused, then angry as he attempted to pull his foot up from the ground, which was now stuck down with ultra sticky super-glue that Harry had borrowed from the Uchiha complex' carpenters. The chunin gave an almighty pull again, when his sandal flew from his foot – or at least, his foot finally moved, but the sandal was no longer there, still stuck to the ground. This caused the man to flail as he lost his balance and had to step back a few times, but as he did so, his leg hit a trip wire and triggered Harry's next prank. From the roof, a hail of rotten tomatoes flew down and pummeled the man several times, while he cried out, trying to shield his head with his arms.

Harry was in hysterics, rolling about on the roof in laughter. He managed to control himself long enough to see the poor chunin trying to move away from the flying tomatoes, only to slip on the red juice on the floor an fall flat on his back. Harry couldn't hold it in any longer, grasping the roof in an attempted to stop himself sliding off the roof in his laughter.

"UCHIHA HARRY! GET DOWN HERE THIS MINUTE!"

"EEP!" Harry almost jumped a mile in the air at the screech and nearly fell off the roof, his heart plummeting faster than the tomatoes had from their hiding place. Gulping loudly, he turned his head around to see Uchiha Fugaku standing right behind him, balancing on the ridge of the roof, glaring down at him with a look that could have melted pure titanium. "Eh-heh…oh… hi…Ojisama…"

"If you are not down and back home in five minutes, I will personally see to it that you are a ball of flame before you can say 'Gokakyu no Jutsu'!"

"Hai! I'm going! I'm going!" Harry yelped and bolted, inwardly wincing. He knew damn well that Fugaku would go through with his treat as well if he wasn't careful. Damn, he hadn't meant for his Uncle to find him, now he was going to get a royal tongue-lashing once he got home. He winced. He was so not looking forward to this…

It had been nine years since that fateful night that the Yondaime Hokage had given the child to Fugaku and Harry had taken his place as the Uchiha leader's nephew. For Fugaku, it had seemed that everything was looking up. Fugaku had watched the boy and he seemed to have all the signs – from being surprisingly quiet for a baby, to having started to talk and walk not long after he had come into the Uchiha's care – of being someone who would receive the Kekkei Genkai of the clan. He had been ecstatic – it meant that if Harry activated his Sharingan, be would be the second genius in his line. His happiness had increased tenfold when only a year later Mikoto had fallen pregnant once more and gave birth to a healthy child – a boy, whom he had named Uchiha Sasuke.

Unfortunately, in that same year, the Kyuubi, the most powerful of the nine demons had attacked the village. It hadn't been pretty. Shinobi both weak and strong gave their lives in order to protect the village, but it wasn't until the Hokage himself had arrived and gave his own life to seal the demon within a newborn child that they were freed from its tyranny. Now, the Sandaime Hokage, who had stepped down for Arashi, had once more taken up the post. Still, Fugaku, Mikoto, their sons, nephew and almost the entire clan had survived, as was expected of a clan known to produce geniuses.

Fugaku had concentrated on training both Harry and Itachi as soon as Harry was able to walk and understand. If Itachi was able to activate his Sharingan at eight, then he was aiming to get Harry to do the same. However, although Harry seemed to grasp concepts quickly enough, and his speed was at least that of a genin even at the age of five, he just wasn't Itachi. He just didn't seem to be any closer to activating his Sharingan – his brilliant green eyes remained just the way they were. In the end, he admitted defeat – the boy would probably never activate his Sharingan, no mater how good he may be. Still, Fugaku wouldn't have minded too much, except for the fact that Harry seemed to have taken a liking for pranks. He used his skills, which should have been dignified, and advanced techniques used for battle and used them to trick poor locals – most of whom the boy had thought had slighted him in some way. And it was more than Fugaku's temper could handle. It had only been seven years and already his hair was going gray because of it.

"What do you think you were doing, using your skills to pull pranks like that!" Harry winced as Fugaku growled at him, shuffling his feet and refusing to meet his gaze. "Is it any surprise that you haven't activated your Sharingan yet when you persist on wasting your time with these foolish tricks! Itachi had activated his when he was eight! Eight, Harry – two years younger than you are now!"

Harry stayed silent, knowing that Fugaku wouldn't listen to him anyway if he pointed out that although he might be Itachi's cousin, he wasn't Itachi. It wouldn't work. He'd already tried many times.

"-And what makes it worse is that you are also the clan leader nephew! Do you have any idea what stories the other clans have about you! Even the Hyugas have complained about you!"

"The Hyugas aren't that bad…" Harry muttered, thinking about Hyuga Neji who was a year below Harry at the academy and also a friend.

"That is not the point, Harry!" Fugaku snarled, causing Harry to almost have to close his eyes against the force behind those words that could have toppled him over. "You are embarrassing the whole clan! If you don't grow up soon, you won't even pass the Genin exams!"

Fugaku finished his ranting and took a deep breath, glaring down at Harry, who kept his head bowed meekly, waiting for him to finish.

"Now get going and if I hear or even see you try to make another prank you know that you will be punished, is that clear?"

"Hai, Ojisama," Harry replied mechanically. He waited until Fugaku had finished glaring before he snorted and turned away, walking back into his study where his door slammed close, causing Harry to wince slightly. He glanced back at the study and pulled his eye, sticking his tongue out. "Like I care what you think anyway. You hardly pay any attention to Sasuke-chan and me even if we do train. Your always going on about Itachi-itoko, just cause he can use it." He put his hands in his pockets and stalked from the room, grumbling under his breath about idiotic uncles and their bloody obsessions with stupid bloodlines.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"What did you do now that got Otosan so pissed off first thing in a morning?"

The messy haired boy looked up from staring at a lone dragonfly hovering over the river to see his older cousin in ANBU uniform and his weasel mask resting on the top of his head looking back at him with his arms folded. When Harry just frowned at him, Itachi sighed and leaned over the rail next to him. "Let me guess – you pranked someone again, right?"

Harry just nodded and turned to look back at the river again broodingly. Itachi was silent for a moment. "You know, Itoko, you could just stop pranking people and concentrate on your studies. I know you're the top of your year in class and you're even close to mastering the Gokakyu no Jutsu. Your smart and you hardly need to pay attention in class. If you just use that brain of yours in your studies with Otosan, you wouldn't get into so much trouble."

The younger boy snorted. "Hardly matters anyway, 'tachi-kun. Even if I did, he wouldn't pay any attention. At least, not till Sasuke and me get our Sharingan. And when he does notice, he only compares us to you anyway."

Itachi snorted too. "That sounds like Otosan, alright," he said bitterly. "I don't think he gets that what makes a person a great ninja isn't the bloodline, but the brain. I mean, in the ANBU, there're plenty of shinobi who don't have a Kekkei Genkai and are good enough to beat some of our clan who have the Sharingan." He surveyed Harry a moment. "You know, you're very smart as well – even I can tell that those traps you use in your pranks are high level shinobi traps that you tinkered with a little. You don't need the sharingan to become a good ninja. If-" he added, ruffling up the younger boy's hair, "you try hard."

"Sasuke too?" Harry asked, his eyes sparkling. "Cause I know that Sasuke could be even better than Ojisama one day! And then we'll show him that we are good enough to be Uchiha!"

"Definitely," Itachi said with a chuckle, "Sasuke-ototo and you. You'll make great ninja one day. I bet you'll even be better than me!"

Harry beamed with pride at the compliment. To become better than Itachi would mean they would be prodigies too, and the fact that it was Itachi who was saying it made him feel much better. "Yeah! We'll show Ojisama that we don't need some dumb bloodline to be great Shinobi!"

Itachi smiled slightly. "Perhaps he'll stop trying to make me into the Perfect Uchiha if you lot beat me as well," he chuckled, although his eyes seemed to darken slightly. It was no secret – at least, between who everyone seemed to call 'the Uchiha siblings' – that Itachi hated the way Fugaku fawned over him and ignored his younger brother and cousin when they did something good. That was one of the reasons Harry resulted to pranks. At least then Fugaku would acknowledge him, even if it was yelling at him. "Do me proud, Itoko."

_Do me proud… _When would he and Sasuke hear those words from Fugaku? Harry wondered as Itachi slipped on his ANBU mask once more and, after one last parting glance, vanished in a puff of smoke. Would they ever hear it from him? Harry didn't care too much if the man acknowledged him or not, but he had seen how it tore at Sasuke.

If I can, I'll at least help Sasuke to show Ojisama that he can be a great ninja. I know he could do it, probably better than me, even.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Sasuke…what on earth are you doing?" Harry wondered aloud from his perch in the branches of one of the nearby trees, watching the boy he thought of as more of a younger brother than his cousin with some interest, and also wondering how his cousin could be so insane and that Harry had never noticed before.

The day was warm – too warm to train in, in Harry's opinion. Itachi probably would have said that his cousin was just making excuses to lay about in the sun, and normally it would have been, but not this time. It was that type of day that made you sweat even if you twitched a finger. He had been intending to make the most of the day, seeing as Fugaku was busy, seeing as he was head of Konoha's police and probably wouldn't have acknowledged him anyway, until he had come across Sasuke in the training spot that Harry usually staked out as his own. Harry had watched with some interest as his younger cousin tried his best to practice some sort of Katon jutsu, but wasn't having much luck, having already burnt himself several times, including the back of his throat by the way he was coughing and panting after each try.

Just as Sasuke looked as though he was about to flop to the floor in exhaustion, Harry decided enough was enough and dropped from his tree beside the younger boy and pulled him forcibly into the shade.

"Aniki!" Sasuke protested, struggling weakly, "Stop it! I'm training!"

"Yeah, I can see that," Harry grumbled as he pulled him down by a nearby tree. "And you're almost killing yourself as well. I knew you were a baka, but not that much of a baka. It's got to be forty degrees or something out here!"

"Oniichan does it," Sasuke managed as Harry stripped the sweat-covered top from his brother in order to get a better look at the sunburn on the younger boy's neck and arms.

"Itoko's older," Harry explained as he rummaged in his small utility pack at his waist, pulling out a small, round tin of ointment, "and has the intelligence to put on some suntan lotion. Stop squirming while I get some balms on these burns, otherwise you'll be in too much pain to even think of training tomorrow." Gently, Harry began to smear the healing balm onto his younger cousin's back, trying not to withdraw as Sasuke hissed in pain and flinched. "You'll thank me tomorrow," he added. He pulled out a bottle of water and dropped it in Sasuke's lap. "And drink this, too"

Sasuke nodded and gulped down the water that Harry handed to him.

Harry worked silently for a moment, before he screwed the top back onto the balm once more and slipped it into his utility pouch. "There you go – won't even scar," Harry said cheerfully in an effort to lighten the mood. However, Sasuke didn't answer. Harry sighed. "So, anything you want to tell me?"

There was a long pause as Sasuke pulled his T-shirt back on again, before he mumbled, "…It doesn't matter."

Harry frowned in annoyance and clouted him on the top of the head. "Don't be stupid. You're my Itoko and practically my brother - of course it matters. Especially when he's doing his best to look like a fried fish on one of the strongest heat-waves of the year."

Sasuke blushed.

"Anyway, didn't Ojisama tell you that it's dangerous to try the Katon jutsu on your own?" Harry continued.

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah, as if. He won't even pay any attention to me. At least he wont until I activate my Sharingan."

"We're in the same boat then," Harry pointed out.

That got Sasuke to smile a little. "But that's cause you're too lazy to try," he pointed out. "I bet you could do it if you put your mind to it."

"Yeah, but even if I got it, you can't master everything. I'm gonna show him you don't need it to be a strong shinobi. Even Itachi-kun doesn't use his most of the time."

"But still," Sasuke said, looking away from his cousin and out at the training field where kunai and shuriken littered the floor. "Otosan won't pay any attention to me, so he doesn't try to teach me any more. And Itachi-oniichan is really busy, you know, cause he's ANBU now, so I can't ask him."

"And you didn't ask me at all? I'm really hurt, Sasuke-chan," Harry said with mock hurt.

"But you don't know Gokakyu no jutsu," Sasuke argued.

"Yeah, but you still have to learn the easier stuff first, otherwise you'd just burn your throat first, like you." Harry pointed out. "And I do know a few of the Katon jutsu that Ojisama and Itachi-itoko taught me, and I can do the Gokakyu now. I finished a few days go. I think I shocked Fugaku-ojisama, though. He seemed almost reluctant to let me wear the Uchiha crest, you know, cause of 'disgracing the family name with foolish pranks' and all that."

Sasuke seemed to deflate again and Harry kicked himself. Of course, Sasuke didn't have an instructor, since Fugaku was ignoring him. "Tell you what," Harry said with a smile, "after we've come back from the academy tomorrow, I'll teach you some of the things I know."

Sasuke's head whipped round and he stared at Harry, his dark eyes sparkling. "Really?"

"'Course! We Uchiha have to look out for each other, right?" Harry said with a grin, before striking a dramatic pose. "And as your cousin and almost-big-brother, it's my duty to pass on my knowledge to my younger sibling."

Sasuke laughed at his brother's antics. "Now if you get big, fuzzy eyebrows, I'll know that you've been bewitched by that Maito Gai Jonin."

"Oh kami no, that guy freaks me out!" Harry said with a laugh. He reached down for his cousin to help him up. "Now, since Ojisama is being stupid and not paying any attention, how about we go grab some ice-cream? Then we can brag to Itachi-itoko and we can laugh while he sulks about it, yeah?"

Sasuke grinned and grabbed his cousin's hand, allowing him to pull him to his feet, before he pulled away and started to run. "Last one to the Ice-cream store has to pay!"

"Oi, get back here, you little cheat!" Harry hollered after him, before running to catch up to the other boy, both of them laughing and their previous heavy mood lifted.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Alright, Sasuke, listen up!" Harry said to the eager younger boy as they sat in the middle of Harry's usual training ground, a scroll resting in front of them while Harry was studying it critically. It had been almost a month since Harry had begun training Sasuke in his free time after the academy and they had already gone through some of the easier of the Katon jutsu. Harry had not informed Fugaku about his training with his youngest son. In his mind, he really wanted to give Fugaku the shock of his life when he saw Sasuke doing the Gokakyu jutsu on his own, then hopefully his 'little brother' would finally get a little attention from his father, rather than the older of the brothers for once.

"I've gone through the Gokakyu on the scroll a few times," Harry continued seriously, before indicating the unrolled scroll that Sasuke was looking at curiously, "but I thought we should bring this with us, just to make sure I didn't totally screw up when I teach it to you. It says here that the Gokakyu is a sort of 'Rites of Passage' technique in our family. When we master this, we officially become adults in the Uchiha clan…but is that a good thing?" Harry mused to himself, earning a glare from Sasuke and he quickly dodged a punch to the head. Harry chuckled. "Boy, what's got you so riled up?"

"Itoko, stop prating around! What do we have to do to do it?" Sasuke said impatiently

Harry sighed. "Alright – spoil sport." He ducked as Sasuke threw a rock at him. "Anyways, moving swiftly on, here's the seals that need to be used for the jutsu," he pointed them out on the diagrams along the scroll. "First, you start of with the seal for the fire element – at least, until you get used to the jutsu and you can just imagine that part. Once you do that, follow these seals, and then inhale, bringing up one hand to form a circle shape with two fingers and blow out through the fingers. Kami-sama, whoever wrote this really didn't know the meaning of brief!" Harry added, grumbling, as he stood up and tucked away the scroll, looking towards a wooden post that was often used for target practice. "Whatever. So, in other words, what you've got to do is –" Harry formed the seals quickly, but slow enough for Sasuke to see them and inhaled, bringing his hand to his mouth. "**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!**"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sasuke's mouth drop open as a great ball of fire shot from Harry's mouth, engulfing the training post in a blaze of orange and red. Quickly, he tapered off, and the flames dispersed, leaving nothing ore than a burned crater and little more than a few ashes in the air remained of the training post. Harry grinned at Sasuke's awed and excited expression.

"Right then, Itoko, you try."

Sasuke looked at him as if he was crazy. "Nani!"

"What's up, Sasuke-chan," Harry teased, though there was no real malice there, "scared?"

That made Sasuke growl and straighten. "Yeah right!"

Harry nodded with a grin. "Good. Okay, Just remember, do those Seals, inhale, and blow out between your fingers. But be careful with how you breathe while doing it. If you hiccup or breathe in at the wrong time, you'll do what you did last year and burn your throat big time. You probably wont be able to talk for a while if you do that, so try to avoid it. Ready?"

Sasuke got ready and turned to face the next lone post standing a few meters away. "Ready!" suddenly he sweat dropped. "Itoko…what are you doing?"

Harry had just backed off at lightning speed and was standing behind a tree behind him, holding a bucket of water in his hands. "What? I'm retreating to a safe distance. You want me to be frazzled? Anyway, I needed to get the water just in case something goes wrong. Really, I'm not that stupid!"

Sasuke sighed and Harry heard him mumble something about stupid 'older brothers' before he focused on the task at hand. His face set in a determined mask, he performed the correct seal he had copied and inhaled, "**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!**" he blew the air out expecting huge flames to come out, only for a tiny flame to poof out, followed by a load of smoke. He frowned at his pitiful performance.

Behind him, Harry couldn't help himself – he burst out into a fit of laughter.

Sasuke whipped round, his hands bunched into fists at his sides and his face flushed with embarrassment. "Harry, stop laughing!"

Harry shook his head, leaning on the tree to help support himself, tears flooding down his cheeks in an effort to control himself. "Can't…stop…so…funny!" he collapsed against the tree, laughing uncontrollably.

"I-TO-KO!"

Harry finally managed to bring himself under control, with a slight snicker here and there. "I'm sorry, Sasuke," Harry apologized, as he began to control his breathing again. "But you have to admit that was hilarious!"

"Whatever," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes, although Harry did spot the corners of his mouth quirk up slightly.

"Alright, at least you didn't fry yourself," Harry said in an effort to cheer him up. "That's a start. Okay, try again, but this time, try to build up a little more Chakra."

"Why didn't you say that before?" Sasuke grumbled as he got ready again.

Harry coughed, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "I…er…forgot. Sorry."

Harry wasn't sure whether to take that as a good sign or a bad one when the younger boy decided to completely ignore that. Putting that thought to one side, Harry got ready once more, just in case Sasuke over-did it this time. He winced as he remembered his first time doing the technique and ended up scorching his throat. Not that he'd tell Sasuke that. He'd never let him live it down. The pain had been reminder enough! "Try again, Sasuke. I know you can do it!"

That made Sasuke perk up a little and he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before he ran through the seals one more time and inhaled. "**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!**"

This time was much better as a basketball sized flame erupted from Sasuke's mouth and managed to incinerate the top of the training pole. Harry beamed as he bounded to his cousin's side, ruffling his hair happily. "You did it, Sasuke! Good job, Itoko!" he grinned as Sasuke beamed up at him happily. "Now, let see how big you can get it! Then we can show Ojisama just how great you are!"

As Sasuke grinned in victory and determination as he got ready to do the technique once more, Harry couldn't help but wonder why Fugaku didn't see just how lucky he was to have a son like Sasuke.

They practiced in the area for several hours longer until that basketball sized flame had manifested itself to a size where it could actually be called a 'grand' fireball, before they gave it up for the day, barely making it home in time for tea. However, Fugaku didn't notice there lateness overly, though he did frown slightly as they bolted into the room rather haphazardly and had to excuse themselves. Once they had sat down, he did comment, however, that Itachi was late. That shocked Harry slightly – not the fact that Fugaku commented about Itachi, but the fact his older cousin was late. Itachi was never late!

"Perhaps he is on a mission, dear," Mikoto answered him hesitantly. "After all, he is an ANBU now, it might have been classified."

"Hmm, maybe," Fugaku said, although he was frowning deeply. Harry and Sasuke glanced at each other, surprised. That frown didn't look like Fugaku's ordinary concerned frown that he used when it came to the oldest sibling, but one that spoke of annoyance.

"You think…Otosan and Oniichan had an argument or something?" whispered Sasuke.

"Dunno," Harry whispered back. "That doesn't sound very much like 'tachi-kun…"

Sasuke opened his mouth to say more, but was caught off by a sharp look from Fugaku and he closed it again. Dinner that night was almost suffocatingly silent.

Harry was almost ready to bolt out of the room by the end of it all. Even his still-in-training Shinobi instincts could feel the tension, and that was even when he had left and was back in his own apartment that was near to the Mansion. As Harry got ready for bed, he had to wonder what had happened between Fugaku and his most prised son.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The first thing Harry thought when he saw Fugaku coming towards him two days after he had completed Sasuke's training in the Gokakyu no Jutsu was 'what have I done this time?'

Fugaku didn't usually meet up with Harry much outside of meal times, which Fugaku had made him attend, even when he had moved into the apartment next to the mansion a year ago, apart from when Harry was in trouble and when Harry had trained with him. And seeing as Harry wasn't even in his training spot (he was actually in a small grove that Harry enjoyed visiting) and hadn't been informed beforehand, it was the former reason that had him worried now. Looking over the past few days, he just couldn't see anything that could have got him in trouble. He hadn't had time to do any pranks since he had started training his cousin, and had only pulled one with a boy at the academy, but even the boy had found it amusing, so that was hardly something to warrant a telling off.

He didn't get much farther with his musings when Fugaku stopped in front of him.

"Uh…hai, Ojisama?" Harry asked nervously.

"Sasuke informed me that you have been assisting him with his training in the Gokakyu no Jutsu," Fugaku said, his voice emotionless. Harry gulped. Of course, he hadn't told Sasuke not to tell Fugaku specifically, even though he had wanted to make it look like Sasuke had done it on his own. Had Harry done something wrong? Or had Sasuke? He really hoped he hadn't got Sasuke in trouble.

"H-hai, Ojisama."

Fugaku nodded, "then, perhaps you are a nephew after my own heart."

"I didn't know it was wrong, Mikoto-obasama said it was alright if I could borrow the scroll…hang on, what?" Harry stumbled to a halt on his babbled apologies when it sunk in what his uncle had actually said. Thankfully, Fugaku didn't say anything about it and continued with his speech.

"Sasuke performed the Gokakyu for me yesterday and informed me it was due to your help. Harry-kun, I'm glad you have finally started to take your training seriously and stopped playing foolish pranks. I hope that now you wear our crest that you will continue to be so productive."

Harry forced himself not to snicker as he bowed his head towards Fugaku. "Hai, Ojisama. I'll try my hardest."

Fugaku nodded and turned away, walking back towards the house once more and Harry stood up with a quick smirk springing to his face. There on Fugaku's back, written in large, black letters was a sign that proudly proclaimed 'Kick me'.

Harry snickered, putting his hands behind his head. "Hey, who said anything about not playing pranks"

It was just too bad that those happy times were just not fated to last…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Oi, Uchiha."

Harry blinked in surprise at the sound of his name being called and turned round, startled, until he saw the blank-eyed boy making his way towards him and a slight smile broke out onto his face.

One would never have thought that Harry and Hyuga Neji would be all that compatible. For instance, both were from two of the greatest of clans in Konohagakure, even though both were from the branch houses (or, at least, the equivalent of the Uchiha branch house in Harry's case) and both houses tended to have a certain rivalry between them. In fact, the first day that Harry and Neji had met at the Ninja Academy, they had got off on the wrong footing. It wasn't until Harry's rather quick temper broke and they had ended up fighting each other that they had realized just how skilled the other was and found respect for that skill – even though it had taken Iruka-sensei at least ten minutes to separate them. That respect slowly turned to friendship and the two students soon became fast friends. One might even call them best friends, although both would have denied it rather violently if anyone was to suggest it.

The young Uchiha raised his hand in a lazy, two-fingered wave.

"Yo, Hyuga. Where's Tenten? I thought she followed you everywhere."

"Che, don't remind me," Neji grumbled, crossing his arms as he fell into step besides Harry. "But like you can talk. I hear the girls have made a fan-club for you."

Harry choked, almost missing a step. "A fan-club? Where the hell did you hear that!?"

Neji rolled his eyes. "Kami, Ahou, anyone with eyes can tell – apart from you, obviously." He smirked. "So much for the eyesight of the great Uchihas."

Harry didn't even flinch at the tone and instantly shot back, "Hey, just because I don't acknowledge every girl who tries to throw herself at me to realize they banded together, blank-eyes, doesn't mean my eyesight on the battlefield is bad."

"I don't see what's so good about him," said a girl with two buns in her hair as she bounded to their side. "I mean, Neji-kun is much better looking than you – no offense, Harry-senpai"

Harry laughed. "Like I care? Tenten, if the rest of those irritating girls thought that and slobbered over Hyuga instead, then I'd finally be free of that bloody Uchiha curse that seems to make ever girl with pea-sized brains hound us like a dog on heat." Harry sighed sympathetically, although his eye glittered in amusement. "I almost feel sorry for Sasuke-chan. He's got it all to come."

"Hn, he's a year behind us, right?" Neji asked.

"Two years behind me, but yeah," answered Harry as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his gray shorts.

"Have you told him about all that?"

"Who, me? Hell no, I want him to learn the hard way. It's not like Itachi-itoko told me or anything." He snickered. "Besides, it'll be way more fun!"

Neji smirked slightly as his pale lavender eyes slid across to look at him. "If it weren't for the fact that he's an Uchiha, I'd feel sorry for the kid to have a sadistic cousin like you."

"Yeah, but he's got 'Tachi-itoko to balance it all out," Harry countered with a grin.

"Speaking of Itachi-san, I heard he became ANBU," Tenten said, "and he's only a few years older than us!"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he did. 'Tachi's meant to be our clan's star prodigy. He activated his Sharingan when he was Sasuke's age and became a chunin before he even hit his teens. Fugaku-ojisama always talks about him." Harry frowned. "But you know, thinking about it, 'Tachi's been acting really strange lately. He's hardly ever at home, or comes back at odd hours from what Sasuke says. I thought it was just 'because he was really busy, you know, with the ANBU and stuff, but a few days ago Sasuke and I heard him arguing with Ojisama – well, we couldn't really hear what it was about, but we did hear raised voices. But still, he's never done that before."

"Perhaps its just stress?" suggested Tenten. "I mean, it can't be easy to be an ANBU at thirteen, and isn't he the heir to the Uchiha clan, so he's also got all the clan issues to deal with as well."

"And Ojisama does tend to lay it on thick with Itachi," Harry added. "I guess it could be that, but it does seem more than that." He shrugged and grinned. "But maybe I'm just thinking too much. What's the worst that could happen anyway?"

"Well, now that we all know that your cousin is cracking up; do you think we could hurry up?" Neji said, irritation lining his voice. "If we don't, then we're going to be late."

"We are?" asked Harry, looking at the clock on the school wall. "Che!" Harry grabbed their arms. "Come on, hurry up!" and pulled them along after him as he bolted down the corridor.

"Damn it, Uchiha! Let go you crazy bastard!" Hyuga shouted at him, trying to run and pry his hand off.

"Harry-senpai! Waaaaaaait!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was late as Harry and Sasuke made their way back towards the Uchiha complex. After the Academy, Harry had waited for Sasuke (thankfully he and his friends had managed to get their on time and thus avoided detention with Iruka-sensei) and Harry had offered to take him out for ice-cream as a teat for Sasuke becoming an official 'man' in the Uchiha clan and was now allowed to wear the Uchiha clan symbol like Harry and Itachi. He knew it was a little delayed, but Harry had only just got his allowance from his uncle, so he decided to splurge a little. _Hey_, he had rationalized, _at least I'm not spending it on pranks._

However, as they were walking down the almost deserted streets, Harry couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, as if something was going to happen, but it couldn't work out what it could be. It couldn't be that he was in trouble – Harry hadn't played a prank on anyone for a while. He simply hadn't had the time to do so. …Okay, so there was the one he pulled at the Yamanaka's shop, but that had been weeks ago and it wasn't anything serious. He was deep in thought about it for a while, wracking his brains to think up some sort of reasoning behind the feelings, when he faltered in his steps as they reached the entrance to the Uchiha complex.

"Hey," Sasuke said, looking round. "There's no one here."

"That's weird," Harry thought aloud. "From what Ojisama says, there's meant to be at least two guards here at all times…"

"Was there some sort of clan meeting, do you think, Itoko?" Sasuke asked, looking a little pale. Harry winced as well at the thought. If there was a clan meeting, Fugaku would probably kill them for having missed it, or even if they were only a few minutes late. However…

"I don't think so," Harry said, looking around again. "Ojisama would have told everyone if there was one and now you're an acknowledged Uchiha adult, you would have definitely have been told."

"That's odd…" Sasuke muttered as they passed through the gate, but now there was no longer the relaxed atmosphere between them. It was just so weird, so un-Uchiha and it made Harry feel nervous. However, he decided to push it out of his mind for the moment as they continued on their way back to the Uchiha mansion. But it wasn't long before they realized there was literally no one around. But that couldn't be right. Even at this time there was at least one or two people around and they normally would have bumped into an Uchiha by now. It was as if they had walked into a ghost town. Harry suppressed a shiver.

"Where is everyone?" Sasuke asked, looking around.

"I promise I have no part in this whatsoever," Harry defended himself immediately. "I haven't even thought pranks in weeks." Something caught the corner of his eye and he turned slightly to see what it was. Strange shadows seemed to be covering the side of one wall, but only in streaks, so that couldn't be right. "Sasuke, wait here a second."

"Harry-itoko…?" Sasuke started, but the words died on his lips when he, too, spotted the strange markings on the wall.

Harry ignored him as he approached the wall cautiously, inspecting the shadowy marks critically. They were like no shadows that Harry had seen – more like someone had chosen a deep color and had randomly painted down the wall in an uneven pain-brush. With two fingers, he brushed his fingers against it, but jerked back slightly when it felt sticky and slightly warm to his fingers. Staring at the stain on his fingers, he lifted them slowly to his nose and sniffed, breathing in a strange, metallic scent. His stomach began to churn slightly, as if trying to warn him not to do anything else, to not get in any further than he already had, but Harry ignored it and carefully touched it with the end of his tongue-

-and promptly jerked back when he tasted the strange, coppery taste that could not be mistaken for anything else. When he had been small, Harry remembered having fallen and had bit his tongue, causing it to bleed a little. The first time he had ever tasted anything similar.

It was blood.

"W-what?" Harry gasped. It seemed that something in his expression must have meant something to Sasuke – sometimes that kid was too smart for his own good – because he was now looking suddenly very young and very scared. Harry jerked back and backed away slightly, putting a hand towards his kunai pouch. "Something's not right."

"Maybe we should get someone…?" Sasuke suggested hesitantly.

"Maybe. Stay close, Itoko."

They made their way through the streets a little longer, hoping that Harry had been mistaken. Harry kept Sasuke close, his emerald eyes scanning the area. They turned round a corner.

Harry froze, unable to move. He heard Sasuke gasp and stumble into him. Harry wanted to turn and run right there and then. He wanted to wake up and find out that this was all a dream, but it wasn't.

Before him, face down on the ground was one of the guards that usually stood at the entrance to the Uchiha complex. His dark hair covered his face and something so dark it couldn't be mistaken for anything else was spilt across the ground, splattered across the wall. Shaking all over, Harry found his eyes moving against their will as they raised and he almost wanted to throw up. Scattered across the street was several bodies, haphazardly strewn all over, blood pooling around them – one leant against a nearby wall, head bowed, a blooded kunai sticking out from his throat. There was even a girl there, who couldn't have been much younger than Sasuke, dead, her hair spilling around her body. It was as if Harry had stepped from reality and walked into a nightmare.

"We should get one of the ANBU or a Jonin or something! Itoko, stay close – hey wait!" he yelled as suddenly, Sasuke, his face contorted with fear took off down the street.

"Okaasan! Otosan!"

"Sasuke! …Chikusho!" Harry growled, forcing himself to move as he took off at a run to catch up with the younger boy. "When the hell are you gonna listen to me!" _Itachi's gonna kill me if I let something happen to Sasuke-itoko! _

Harry bolted down the winding streets after Sasuke, but the boy was surprisingly fast and had already pulled ahead of him. Harry forced himself to speed up, vowing that he was not going to let what happened to that young girl happen to Sasuke as well. He spun round the corner in time to see something that would change him forever.

There, in front of him, lay two very familiar figures. The first was a man, laying face down in a puddle of blood that stained his police-uniform and spilling round him, splattered on the floor, his neck twisted to one side so you could still see his face. His eyes – sharingan eyes – were wide with what looked like shock, betrayal and, was there fear on that face as well, despite the terrible blindness of eyes that usually burned brightly. The second was a woman, tall and long-haired, who was laying beside the man on her back, hair covering her face, but not completely. Dark eyes looked up at the sky blankly, remnants of tears on her pale cheeks. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. Sasuke collapsed next to them, his eyes wide with horror as he stared at the forms of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto.

Harry couldn't move as he stared at Sasuke and the dead forms of his aunt and uncle. He didn't know what to say, except repeat the only thing that came to his frozen mind. "Oh no… Oh kami…"

"Why…" Sasuke whispered. "I don't understand…"

a slight sound caused Harry to yank himself from his paralysis and spun round, kunai at the ready, just in case the murderer was still around, until a figure stepped out of the shadows and he hesitated.

"I-Itachi?" Harry managed. Sasuke, he felt, shifted ever so slightly in order to look at his brother entering the light. However, something wasn't right, it just wasn't right, somehow.

In front of him stood Itachi in his ANBU uniform, the mask hung round his neck. His hair fell down over his Hitai-ate and, as he looked at them, his eyes were the blazing form of the sharingan, which almost seemed to glow in the semi-light. In one hand his katana was drawn and the cold steel of the weapon was covered in something dark and dripping. One side of his face splashed with the same, unmistakable liquid.

"I…Itachi…" Sasuke managed, his eyes wide and staring. Harry grabbed him and pulled him back behind him as Itachi raised his head and looked at them, his Sharingan blazing like the blood that glistened on his katana.

"What have you done, Itachi?" Harry said as calmly as possible, though his voice shook as much as the kunai he held in his hand. He couldn't believe it. This just couldn't be Itachi. This couldn't be the boy that Sasuke looked up to and Harry saw as almost a brother, rather than a cousin. "You didn't…did you…?

Itachi didn't answer as he stepped forwards again and Harry pulled Sasuke behind him, his heart pounding a million miles an hour. Itachi seemed to go into stance of some kind, his sword bared. Harry stumbled back. "What are you doing?"

Itachi's eyes narrowed and then he moved. Harry gasped at the speed as Itachi shot forwards and did the only thing he could think of at the time – he threw Sasuke out of the way, just as Itachi's hand slammed into his forehead, pushing him back. Harry cried out as he went backwards, Itachi's hand still at his head and suddenly colour exploded before his eyes and pain enveloped his head. He felt winded as he gasped out, the kunai falling from his hand as he slid down the wall.

"Harry!" Sasuke's voice screamed over the pain.

Harry groaned, forcing himself to open his eyes, despite the swimming of his vision and forced himself to stand up, leaning heavily against the wall with a hand to his head, feeling the wet stickiness of his own blood matting his hair. But he didn't care. Sasuke was in trouble. He had to help him, no matter what. Forcing open an eye, he only managed to see Itachi, his back to Harry, advancing on Sasuke, who's voice appeared to have been cut off as he stared at his older brother in horror, as if unable to move, something constricting his voice. Harry tried to move faster, but the blow to his head must have concussed him slightly as he forced himself to stand, to try to get to Sasuke. Meanwhile, the younger boy's eyes widened even more at something, before the suddenly dulled and he fell to his side, his face blank as he stared at nothing, his muscles twitching.

"Sasuke, no!" Harry yelled, ignoring the pain as he stumbled forwards. He forced himself to stand his ground, staring at the young man. "Itachi, stop it! He's your brother, damn it!"

However, anything else he may have wanted to say died on his tongue the moment Itachi turned round again, his eyes cold, emotionless, merciless. Not the eyes of the cousin that Harry thought he knew. And he feared them.

"Your turn," Itachi said. Harry's blood ran cold at the sound. Unwavering, unyielding, like the steel coated in the Uchiha blood that was held in his hand. Harry couldn't help but look into Itachi's eyes, sharingan eyes of black and crimson, meeting terrified emerald that knew he could not run, knew that he was staring into the eyes of a murderer, yet unable to grasp it as truth.

"Itachi-itoko…" confusion, disbelief.

Itachi, however, didn't seem to hear or chose not to as he stepped forwards, eyes fixed on Harry in an almost hypnotic intensity, and he couldn't break his gaze. He forced himself to step backwards until his back touched the wall and he couldn't back away any more. Itachi loomed over him. Coldly, he reached out and grasped Harry neck, pushing him up the wall slowly as Harry grasped at his arm, trying to make him let go as he gasped for breath.

His movements ceased as the sharingan eyes began to move. Black began to meld into a tri-bladed wheel, making Harry freeze up. A low voice, cold, dispassionate, merciless that seemed to come from somewhere outside his vision of black and red spoke. "_Mangekyou Sharingan: Tsukuyomi._"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It had been a week since what had been dubbed as the Uchiha Massacre, and both Harry and Sasuke were still at the hospital made sure that there were no life-threatening side affects. Not that they hadn't got through it unchanged. Harry had become rather sullen for a time and his temper seemed to have grown even more so that at times people were afraid to talk with him. Harry admitted to himself that he was being a prat after the Sandaime Hokage came to talk with him. Harry rubbed at his cheek that still smarted from where he had hit him. At least he had knocked some sense into him. But he seemed to be coping better than Sasuke. The other boy had been barely responsive, and if anyone even mentioned the name Itachi, he would be even worse than Harry.

Harry hadn't been able to see Sasuke all that often, as the doctors had become rather protective (or obsessed, in Harry's opinion) and rarely let them out of their sight. Now however, Harry was going to see his cousin, whether the doctors liked it or not. Now that he wasn't so grief-ridden – though it still hurt – and had stopped looking as though he was going to kill himself – although god knows where they had got that idea – he knew that he would have to help Sasuke too.

He really did look awful. His hair was a mess, almost as bad as Harry's was and covered his face. His pajamas that the hospital had obviously dug up for him were rumbled and creased. He sat at the side of the bed and didn't even look up as Harry came into the room. Harry froze for a moment, remembering what the nurse had told him, that he hadn't been responsive most of the time, even worse than Harry had been. Not that Harry blamed him. What had happened to Harry was bad, but what had happened to Sasuke had been even worse, because it was his parents that he saw dead, his brother who had killed them…the brother that Sasuke had so adored and wanted to surpass.

Harry glared down at his cousin for a moment before smacking his fist on top of the boy's head. "Alright, that's it! I'm fed up of you acting like a complete idiot. If you don't get yourself together soon, I'm gonna Gokakyu no Jutsu your but off!"

"Go away."

Well, at least it was a response. More than anything Harry had got from him since the massacre anyway. "Not until you talk to me."

"There, done it. Go away."

Harry shook his head and sat down on the bed beside Sasuke. "You know the Hokage was talking to me," Harry said. "He ended up giving me a slap. Must have been pretty much being a prat for him to do that." Harry glanced at Sasuke, noticing he wouldn't look at him. He sighed, before doing something he had never really done to anyone of his family since he was very young. He hugged Sasuke, feeling him stiffen in his arms. "I'm glad you're alive." Harry muttered. "I'm so glad."

"…I should be dead."

"Maybe I should have been, too. But we're alive."

Sasuke still sat stiffly. However, he was shaking slightly now, as if trying to stop the tears. "…It hurts."

Harry held him to him, refusing to let go. "I know Sasuke…I know."

"No you don't."

Harry felt anger spike up in him, but restrained it with a whack over the temper's head. "Yes, I do. He was your brother…the one you looked up to, who you wanted to be like…to surpass. Yet he killed everyone you loved and it hurts inside."

"Harry…"

"I never had parents," Harry continued. "Fugaku-ojisama and Mikoto-obasama were the only people as close as parents as I've ever know, so I feel like I've lost them again. I'm not going to let you just give up now, Sasuke! You've always been like a little brother to me, and I'm, not about to let you kill yourself because you're being even more of a twit than me. We've all we've got left now."

"Harry…you called me a little brother…" Sasuke murmured back, still holding onto him.

"I meant what I said, Sasuke," Harry told him. "You always were like my little brother…and we're all that's left now…I told you before, didn't I? Uchihas stick together…no matter what. So I'm going to look after you now. Honest. No joking about it. You ain't getting rid of me any time soon!"

TBC

Jijii – old man

Ojisama – honourable uncle

Obasama – honourable aunt

Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit

Kami – god or deity

Itoko - cousin

Nani – what

Hai - yes

Aniki – big brother

Ototo – little brother

Oniichan – dear older brother

Otosan – father

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu – fire release: grand fireball technique

Please review! Also, a preview of next chapter!

Harry: Hey, who's that kid? He's always on his own, grinning and smiling all the time, playing pranks. Hey, he reminds me of me! But why the hell are those people being so bad to him. Oi, I'm not going to let you do that, even if the guy pisses off Sasuke! Maybe it'll help him if they try out a prank war against me! Next episode: Two Uchihas and an Uzumaki!

_Beta-read by: Naruki-uke_


	3. Chapter 2: Two Uchiha and an Uzumaki

Chosha's notes

**Chosha's notes**

_The chapter has been reviewed and beta read for any grammar mistakes_

Welcome back everyone! Thank you so much for your reviews. I never thought of myself as much of a tragedy writer before, so I'm touched that you found it so moving. To all that are a little disappointed about Itachi's actions, lets just say that you must look underneath the underneath and watch what happens. It won't be the last we see of Itachi – bad or good on the other hand; you'll have to find out. If you want to take a few guesses, then by all means tell me what you think. If I happen to like the idea, I may even change the story line a little to use it. But…we'll see, ne?

Oh, and to all 'Celestin' fans, I'm sorry I haven't updated that in a while, but I've been in a Naruto mood and also had a little writers block – it happens to the best of us, never mind me. But I promise I'll get a new chapter up by Christmas at least. Look forward to that!

Anywho, with that out of the way, lets get this much-awaited chapter on the way!

**Disclaimer:** JK. Rowling and M. Kishimoto reserve copyrights to Harry Potter and Naruto. Chosha Kurenai made Uchiha Potter as Fanfiction only and thus is not intended as infringement on those rights.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Uchiha Harry, prankster and nephew of Fugaku, and Sasuke, his cousin, are the only survivors of the Uchiha Massacre. Hospitalised after both being on the receiving end of the Mangekyou Sharingan at the hands of Itachi, Harry promises to look after his 'younger brother'

**Chapter Two:**

**Two Uchiha and an Uzumaki**

The streets of Konoha were pretty much the same as always as Harry walked down the busy sidewalk trying to ignore everyone around him in an almost vain effort to keep a hold on his already short temper.

It had been a few weeks since he had finally got out of hospital and he and Sasuke had moved into Harry's apartment. Knowing that if they lived in the manor it might make them both take a turn for the worst with the memories it would bring up, Harry had thought it better to take them away from that, at least for the moment. It was, in Harry's mind, a temporary measure, at least until they could cope with the knowledge of what had happened. Thankfully, Sasuke hadn't said a word about it, for which Harry was thankful. For the first few days it was hard, as they would often laps into silences, and at night they still had nightmares, vivid and terrifying that they could only be prevented when they slept in the same room – or at least they weren't as bad as they would have been. But with Harry using his pranking skills in an effort to lighten the mood, Harry also felt that he wasn't about to buckle under emotional stress because of it and Sasuke was finally starting to smile again. However, to the rest of the world, Sasuke was like ice.

However, despite the fact that Harry and Sasuke were trying their best to bring their lives even close to some sort of normality since what Harry had dubbed 'the incident', it seemed that the rest of Konoha was determined to drive them to insanity. Whispers would follow them, a pitying look in their eyes that almost made Harry want to kill them himself – he hated pity of any sort. Even now as he walked down the street, Harry could see them at it - glancing at him and muttering to each other as he passed.

_And I can guess what they're saying._ Harry thought bitterly, before imitating them in his head_. 'That's one of the Uchiha boys. He and his cousin are the only ones to survive – and both of them 'rookie of the year' in their classes. Guess it proves what a noble line was lost, that the poor things can still go so far and to cope after what happened to them.' _

He snorted as he shoved his hands into his pockets and glared at a woman who was obviously staring at him while out grocery shopping. She blushed at being caught and looked away.

_Che, I hate that. They look at me like some sort of exhibit in a museum. I should get a sign made up. 'Uchiha Harry - Endangered species'. Maybe charge admission to stare at Sasuke and me._

Harry couldn't help but snort at that picture.

Still, that wasn't even the least of his troubles. It had taken the Uchiha boys at least a week longer than it should have done to settle down in any form. That was because it had seemed that just about everyone in Konohagakure had wanted to become the fosterers of the last two members of the genius-producing clan. Come to think of it, Harry mused, it was a miracle that Konohagakure no Sato was still standing.

…**Flashback…**

"_-I would be honoured to become guardian of the last two members of the Uchiha clan. It is such a loss to Konoha…"_

"_-Hokage-sama, It would be more beneficial for the Last Uchiha to be in a ninja-environment for their own development-"_

"_-The Hyuga could take the two of them in – as branch-house members, of course-"_

_The tick of his eyebrow had finally become an all out twitching and the vein at his temple was throbbing as the meeting of what would happen to Uchiha Harry and Sasuke continued. They had already been sitting in the large meeting room of the Hokage tower for what seemed like hours while the most prestigious clan members – and even some of those that Harry never thought would have even considered taking them in, such as the Hyuga. (He almost had a heart attack when Hyuga Hiashi himself turned up) – argued over them. Even the Hokage, Sarutobi, was present at his desk, following the arguments with calm eyes, but did not intervene overly, waiting to see what they all had to say. There were so many people, Shinobi and Civilian alike there, that it had already taken almost two days already and Harry was just about at breaking point. What made matters worse was the fact that so far, the last surviving Uchiha had barely got a word in edgeways._

"_-I have room available for one or the other to stay," one shinobi was saying. "But unfortunately, it would be impossible to be able to look after and train both boys."_

"_-It may be a good idea if the two of them were in different households-"_

_Harry's composure snapped._

"_Forget it!"_

_Everyone fell silent at the angry hiss that came from the oldest Uchiha, some with a surprised expression written all over their faces. Sasuke, who had been silent through the whole thing, his face fixed in the icy mask he had been wearing in public since the incident, suddenly looked at him, his dark eyes widened slightly. Although Harry had played tricks before and had a rather short temper at times, Harry had never before spoken to anyone with such high standing in Konoha as these people in such a scathing and disrespectful tone before. _

_Surprisingly, this seemed to have caused Sarutobi to look over at them with more interest than he had through the entire meeting._

"_Excuse me?" one of the Shinobi whom Harry didn't know (nor did he care) said in a slightly scandalised voice. _

"_I said, forget it," Harry snarled back, his green eyes blazing, causing the man to step back. "I don't honestly care what you say – I won't be split up from Sasuke-itoko, especially not now. You don't even really care what happens to us, although it'd make you look better to have an Uchiha in your clan, but I don't care about that. I'll look after Sasuke myself!"_

_Sarutobi looked at Harry for a moment, before sighing slightly, his eyes looking older than they usually did, although there was a slight smile on his face. "I see you took what I said to heart, Harry-kun."_

_Harry looked at him for a moment, before letting a slight smile appear on his face. "We're all we've got left. Sasuke's family. I won't abandon him."_

_The Hokage closed his eyes slightly and smiled. "I understand. I believe this meeting has gone on long enough. Things will stay how they are."_

"_But Hokage-sama-" someone exploded, but didn't manage to say much more as Harry rounded on him with blazing eyes._

"_We made the decision. Now stop wasting my time!"_

…**Present…**

Harry rolled his eyes as he remembered the reactions to that had been. However, rather than being angered by it (at least, after they had calmed down and could no longer hold two pares of eyes with Uchiha glares on at full blast) it seemed only to have made everyone whisper about how strong the two boys were to be able to look after themselves.

Scaring off another civilian who just did not seem to know when not to stare, Harry continued on his way down the street, his eyes fixed determinedly ahead. Absently, he dodged round a young blonde boy who was running in the opposite direction, laughing loudly as two other Shinobi chased him down the street. He paused to allow a small smile to grace his features before he snorted and shook his head. It reminded him a little of when he had just pranked someone and they tried to catch him – if they ever found out, which wasn't often. However, something caught his ear. The whispers had changed from sympathetic awe to a dark grumbling. Now it seemed a new name was attached to the whispers, and it wasn't Sasuke's.

"Hmph. It's that boy, Naruto. Off causing more problems, no doubt. He can't do anything else with him being-"

"Shhhh! You know that's forbidden to talk about that!"

Harry straightened and looked over his shoulder at the two women who had been whispering to each other, before looking over in the direction the blonde had gone, noting the glares that people were sending the boy's way. Harry frowned. That was odd. He wondered what could have caused that sort of reaction. And what was that about something being forbidden?

Perhaps he should talk to the old man Hokage about that. There was definitely something up with those reactions.

Harry watched as the boy disappeared around the corner and out of sight, before sighing and gave a slight shrug, and continuing down the street. Why was he getting so worked up about it anyway? It wasn't any of his business, just like it wasn't anyone's business about what was happening with Sasuke and himself, he added mentally. Still, it was sort of nice that they weren't talking about him anymore. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to see the kid again anyway.

It never crossed his mind just how wrong he would turn out to have been…

An hour or so later, Harry was on his way back from shopping, a bag of food clutched in his arms, when something golden out of the corner of his eye caused him to pause momentarily.

_It's that blonde kid from before…_Harry realized as he let his eyes wander over him. The small boy was sitting on a bench, his dark T-shirt supporting a red swirl, and also wore a pare shorts and waistcoat looked a little big on his short, skinny frame. He was alone, bright azure eyes watched some children playing close by. He looked as though he wanted to join in with the games, but every time he looked as though he was about to join in, the children's parents would glare coldly at him or tug their kids further away. The boy lowered his eyes slightly and sat back again with a frown and huffed loudly, crossing his arms over his chest. However, it didn't look like he was deterred, as he nodded to himself a few times and bounced to his feet, heading across to the children once more.

"Ano sa, Ano sa, Can I play too?" the blonde boy beamed at them, as he bounded over. However, he didn't get far when a man pushed passed him and started to steer the children out of the way.

"Come now, let's play elsewhere," the man said as he pulled the children away, shooting the boy a glare and walked on.

_Ouch, now that has got to hurt_, Harry winced in sympathy as he saw the boy loose his balance and fall back, but also got a full blast of the glare the man had given him, causing him to falter slightly. _Now that was just uncalled for. The guy's got to be a prankster like me, if that scene earlier was anything to go by, but even I don't get treatment like that. _He hesitated for a second; waiting to see if anyone would help the boy, but everyone around seemed to be avoiding looking in his direction. _Kami, what it __with_ _everyone today?_ Harry growled mentally. Making up his mind, he made his way forwards, shifting his bag slightly as he squatted down next to him.

"Hey, kid, are you all right?" he asked.

The blonde paused in his struggling to right himself and blinked up at Harry in shock with brilliant blue eyes that seemed an even brighter blue than Harry's was green.

The boy beamed at him slightly, although the smile didn't completely reach his eyes. "I'm fine! No little bump'll hurt me!" he exclaimed energetically. Harry chuckled slightly at that.

"Good to know. Here." He held out his hand to help him up and was slightly surprised when the boy tensed slightly, as if expecting to be hit. Harry cocked an eyebrow up at that, but decided not to mention it. The blonde twitched out of his cringe and blinked at the offered hand as if it were something strange and alien. "I'm not holding my hand out for my health, you know," Harry said with a slightly amused tone in his voice, surprising himself a little as well. He hardly ever used that tone of voice outside his apartment since 'the incident'.

However, the boy didn't seem to have noticed Harry's slight pause as he chuckled weakly, rubbing a hand behind his head as he grasped Harry's offered hand. Harry smiled and pulled him to his feet.

As the boy was dusting himself off, Harry took a moment to study the boy a little better. He wasn't very tall – at least an inch or more shorter than Sasuke was and about the same age. His bright blonde hair stuck up in all directions even more wildly than Harry's own. His cheeks were married by strange whisker-like marks – three on each cheek. Harry wondered how he managed to get such symmetrically placed markings like that. He was broken out of his thoughts as the boy winced slightly and pulled his arm close to him, where it was grazed and bleeding. Seeing that, Harry quickly placed down the grocery bag, untying one of his arm strapping and took a step forwards.

"Let me have a look, squirt," Harry said as he got the boy to sit down on the bench once more and inspected the arm for dirt for a moment, before wrapping the wound with his arm-strap. As he worked, Harry said "so, what was all that about?" He nodded towards the place where the children were now, where some of the adults were glancing over at them in shock, before whispering to each other hurriedly. Harry glared hard at them and they jumped, blushed at being caught and turned away again.

The blonde boy shrugged slightly, although the move was hampered slightly by the fact Harry had his other arm in a firm grip. "I dunno. They're always like that," he said hesitantly, before stiffening, then saying in a more cheerful voice, "But I'm gonna show them! I'm going to become Hokage one day! Then everyone'll stop disrespecting me and seeing me as someone important!"

Harry finished with his work with a sharp tug to pull off the excess bandages and sat next to the boy on the bench and grinned at him. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really! Believe it!"

Harry laughed slightly – the boy's energetic-ness seemed to be rubbing off on him – and leaned back on his palms. "Well, with an attitude like that, you can't go far wrong," he chuckled. "So, squirt, what's your name?"

The blond boy frowned at him. "I'm not a squirt! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and don't you forget it!"

Harry glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and smiled slightly. "Uzumaki Naruto, huh? Well, make sure you clean that graze properly when you get home. Speaking of home," Harry added as he glanced at the position of the sun, "I'd better get home too, otherwise My Itoko'll be sending out the ANBU to find me." He chuckled at the image and picked up his bags again, but before he could go further, he felt a tugging at his shirt. He glanced round again, an eyebrow raised questioningly. "Hm?"

"Ano sa, ano sa. What's your name?"

Harry smiled slightly, although it wasn't as happy as it was, images flickering through his mind, in association with the name of his clan. "Harry," he said quietly. "It's Uchiha Harry."

If it was possible, Naruto's jaw dropped to the floor. "WHAT! You mean you're related to that bastard Sasuke!" Harry blinked slightly at that and Naruto seemed to realise what he just said. "Uh…I mean…"

Harry chuckled a bit, seemingly much to Naruto's belief. "Huh, you're in the same class as Sasuke then? Yeah, he's my cousin, but he's practically my little brother. But, I guess I get what you mean. Sasuke-Itoko's always been a bit of a loner outside the clan, and was only really close to me and It…one other person." He trailed off, looking over towards the Uchiha compound sadly. _But I wonder. If Itachi had killed me as well, what would have happened to Sasuke then? Would he really have just been lost in revenge? Everyone he was close to would have been gone. He wouldn't have anything left…_

Quickly, he shook himself out of the dark thoughts before he started to brood too much. "Well, he's not that bad once you get to know him," Harry finished, shifting the bag in his arms. "Well, It was nice meeting you, squirt-"

"-I'm not a squirt!" Naruto yelled.

Harry grinned. "Well, maybe I'll see you around some time, Naruto-kun. Sa, Ja ne."

With that, Harry began to head back to his apparent; inwardly hoping that Sasuke wouldn't have got overly paranoid about him being late and actually had sent out ANBU to find him. He also wondered if he would meet Uzumaki Naruto again some day.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, Itoko, what were you up to that made you late?" Sasuke asked inquisitively as they moulded rice-balls at the kitchen counter.

Harry shrugged. "Nothing much really. Got hampered by one of the shop assistants for ages because she was playing the sympathetic mother figure that I could have done without. It's damn annoying! Oh, and I ran into a class-mate of yours."

Sasuke shot him an uneasy look. "Not the fan club…"

Harry did a double take at the boy before bursting out laughing. "Oh, Kami, you already got your fan club! Poor, poor Sasuke-chan. Maybe I should just invite one of them over. Perhaps show them your baby pictures. I mean, you look so cute in that outfit-"

"Don't you dare!"

"Kami, its so easy to get you riled up, Sasuke-chan," Harry chuckled at the fuming boy who had just squashed the rice-ball he was holding out of recognition. "Don't worry, it wasn't any of your fan club – unless of course you have fan boys…" he gave Sasuke a long, hard look. "You're not gay, are you?"

"If you say one more word, Itoko, I'm going to stick this Onigiri…"

Harry whipped up his hands in defence. "Hai, no more fooling! Promise. To what I was saying, I met this guy in your class named Uzumaki Naruto."

Sasuke's face went flat as he turned back to making the rice balls. "Oh, you mean that dobe, huh. What did he do this time?"

Harry blinked at his cousin, rather surprised by the irritation n his voice. "Dobe? Oh come on, he can't be that bad, Itoko."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Harry, the guy's a total idiot. He never pays attention, always messes around and the rest of the class has to go over things dozens of times just because he can't be bothered to practice. He just does whatever comes into his head and is louder than half the civilians but together."

"Sounds a little like me sometimes, Sasuke," Harry but in.

Sasuke snorted. "I bet even you're not that bad. That Dobe can barely do a Bunshin. He's pathetic in written exams and the guy just wont shut up."

"I dunno," Harry said as he began placing the finished onigiri on a plate, looking out the window onto the empty streets of the Uchiha complex an watched a few birds flying above the silent houses. "I don't think that the kid was all that bad. In a way, he sort of reminded me of myself sometimes, when Ojisama was too focused on It…him… and he wouldn't even give us a second glance." He remembered the dark glares that the villagers had sent the boy's way, those conspiritual whispers. "It was like he's like that…just to get a little attention, you know. He can't do it by being the best, so…" Harry shrugged.

"I wondered why…" Sasuke murmured, "I mean, you're not stupid or anything, and no one in the clan acted like you used to…"

Harry's eyes were hidden by his dark bangs as he picked up the plate and moved it to the table, pausing as he looked down at them. "It's not like that matters anymore."

Next to him, he felt Sasuke lower his head slightly as well. "…No," he whispered quietly. "I guess it doesn't…"

Sighing, Harry placed the plate on the table before shaking himself out of his melancholy thoughts, before he dragged Sasuke into depression again. It had taken him long enough to get him out of it. He smiled. "Still, if he's anything like me, it must be fun sitting in on your classes!"

"Che, don't remind me," Sasuke grumbled, slipping into the chair opposite. Well, Harry was pleased to note; at least he didn't look like he was going to be claimed by despair again. "I've got to deal with him tomorrow. Dumb dobe."

"Well, better him than me," Harry smirked.

"And I'm still going to get you for sticking those frogs in my futon last week, you know," Sasuke growled suddenly, glaring at him, but Harry waved it off lazily.

"Wouldn't have expected anything else, Sasuke-chan," Harry drawled, before clapping his hands together. "Itadakimasu!"

"And stop calling me chan!"

"Hai, hai, Sasuke-chan."

"IT-TO-KO!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The rest of the week past and the Uchihas had finally settled down into some sort of routine. They would wake at the crack of dawn to an alarm clock (which usually ended up being tossed across the room by a half-asleep Harry) and would go for a quick morning run. After that, Harry would make breakfast – sometimes with Sasuke's help, although the younger boy's cooking skills were rather limited. Afterwards, the two of them would walk to the academy, where Sasuke usually vanished inside the building to avoid his fan-club girls until class began, and Harry would spend a little time with Neji, Tenten or some of the people from his own class. After a day of studying or practising some jutsu or other, Harry and Sasuke would meet up and head home, prepare dinner, occasionally spar with each other, or just laze about with a book or to clean up their kunai and such. They would then retire to bed, setting the alarm clock early so they could start the routine all over again.

To most people, this would have seemed boring, but it Harry and Sasuke, it was a comfort that kept their minds away from a certain newly appointed S-class missing-nin. It also stopped people from bothering them about the circumstances that lead to the younger Uchiha moving in with his elder cousin.

However, Harry was well versed in Murphy's law, so he wasn't all that surprised when something happened that completely ruined their hard-fought-for routine. Harry might not have minded that much, except for the circumstances in which it was ruined.

It was on the day that he met Uzumaki Naruto for the third time.

Harry had been summoned for a meeting with the Hokage, who had been arranging them almost once a week just to make sure that the two Uchihas were coping on their own. Harry admitted to himself that it was a nice gesture and all, but really, it was beginning to irritate him a little bit. It seemed that his presence in the Hokage tower was becoming a normal occurrence, as was hearing impromptu arguments – usually from Harry's end, at something the Hokage said. Harry had begun to call him Ojii or Jijii just to irritate him back.

_And I bet its some twisted therapy that Hokage-ojii came up with_, Harry grumbled to himself good-naturedly as he gave the secretary an absent wave on his way out. _Only Sandaime could come up with that whacked out idea._ Still, however much Harry pretended, he was actually glad the Hokage did so. Sasuke was lightening up a bit, possibly from having another person watching out for him, and it was sort of funny to be able to insult the old man and not have the ANBU breathing down your neck because of it.

"You little brat!"

"Ara?" Harry blurted, momentarily broken from his stride and his thoughts at the shout, and backed up a little to look down the street he had just passed. There was about three people – the first was a rather butch-looking girl with her hair in a messy bunch at the back of her head, the second a young man with grey-coloured clothing. The last was another young man, but this one looked to be shinobi, rather than civilian like the other two if the hitae-ate around his arm was any indication. All of them seemed to be surrounding something orange in colour and when one kicked at it, there was a choked off cry.

"Huh," one of them growled, "so you think it was fun to mouth off to us, eh, Uzumaki? Little bastard."

"What…Uzumaki? Where have I heard that before…" Harry frowned, before a small blond kid with bright Azure eyes jumped into his memory. "Naruto-kun?" he whispered in surprise and before he realised what he was doing, he was running down the street towards the small crowd. "Oi!" Harry growled as he came to a halt not too far away from them. The three, surprised, turned to look at him, giving Harry his first good look at the poor victim.

The boy was a mess. His orange jacket and shorts were torn in places and his face was badly bruised, one of his eyes looking as though it was swelling a little. He pulled himself to his knees slightly and stared up at him in shock for a moment. "H…harry-san?" he croaked.

Harry nodded slightly, before turning to look at the three 'attackers'. "What the hell are you doing?" he growled in a low, dangerous tone.

The shinobi, who might have been the leader of the group, turned to face him. "The kid insulted us one to often," the man said, "he brought it on himself."

"And that's an excuse to beat him senseless?" Harry snarled. Since what had happened, Harry's patience with unnecessary violence was zero. And when the kid they were beating was a boy whom reminded Harry a little of himself and whom Harry could not understand why it had been done to him – because of an insult? Honestly! – his tolerance had vanished entirely. "I think you've done enough. Move, or I will tell the Hokage." Harry hissed, ignoring them as he pushed passed them to get to Naruto's side.

"Hey!" came a voice from somewhere behind him, before it was cut off in surprise, before a hissing whisper reached his ears. Harry picked up the words 'Uchiha', 'survivor', 'why' and 'monster' pretty easily, feeling the gazes on his back, where the Uchiha embalm was proudly borne. However, Harry decided to ignore them again as he crouched by the boy's side.

"Oi, Naruto-kun, you certainly seem to get yourself into trouble, ne?" he said gently as he went to help him up, only to have the boy flinch slightly. "I'm not going to hurt you," Harry said, making his voice as gentle as he could, "but you need those bruises seeing to. Come on." And he began to help the boy to his feet, surprised by how…well…light he seemed to be for someone his age. Hell, even Sasuke was heavier, and he was no heavyweight.

"Uchiha-kun, why are you concerned for that brat?" one of the people behind him said and Harry felt Naruto stiffen slightly in his arms. "He's got nothing to do with you!"

Harry turned and shot them his most potent Uchiha Glare, which caused the woman to flinch back in shock. "Does it matter?" Harry said quietly, ice in his voice. "Like it matters if I know him well or not, no one should be treated like that just because your ego got bruised. Now get out of my way, or I know that the Hokage will be pissed off at you for what you did to Naruto-kun."

If Harry had been anyone else, he knew that he probably would have joined Naruto as a punch bag. However, seeing how awed everyone was being about him and Sasuke being the only two who survived when all the other Uchihas were now pushing up daisies, Harry knew he could pull it off. At least he could use that bloody fame for something good for once rather than unwanted attention and unneeded sympathy.

Without looking at them, even though they looked shocked and the shinobi gave him a rather dark look, Harry half pulled, half carried the younger boy from the street and out onto the path he had been going down, heading towards the Uchiha complex. Although there wasn't the standard guard there anymore too keep out unwanted Samaritans and fan-girls, the Hokage had started to send the random ANBU to do checks on the estate a few times a day to make sure nothing was wrong and that the last two Uchihas were alright. At least there, Harry could deal with Naruto without anyone else trying to finish the beating off.

Plus Harry had absolutely no idea where the kid lived.

"Naze…?"

"Huh?" Harry glanced down at the boy at the quiet whisper, whom he had his arm supporting as they half walked half staggered down the street, earning the odd look from passers by. "What was that?"

"…Naze…? Why did you…help me?" Naruto asked, the energy that Harry had previously seen the last two times he had seen the boy seemed to be cloaked by confusion.

"Why shouldn't I have?" Harry asked him in return.

"Nobody else…except Hokage-jijii…no one else tried to help me before," Naruto managed, avoiding his eyes. "So why'd you help me?"

Harry shrugged, although it was hampered by the weight of the boy next to him. "I dunno. Maybe its because I didn't think a three on one fight was fair when one was a shinobi? Or, maybe it cause you reminded me a little of me last time we met." He smiled down at Naruto, who's face was slack with shock. "Come on, we're going to get those wounds of yours sorted, Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked at him a little longer, before a slow smile made its way to his face and he beamed up at him. "Hai, Harry-san!"

Harry shuddered. "Enough with the san already! It makes me feel old – I'm only two years older than you!"

Naruto grinned even more. "Hai Harry-sempai!"

If he could, Harry might have smacked his head against the wall.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Tadaima…"

"Welcome home, Ito-what on earth happened!"

Harry half smiled, half grimaced as he stumbled into the apartment, Sasuke scrambling up from where he had been studying what looked like a scroll of some kind towards him. About half way back to the complex, Naruto had passed out and Harry had to carry him piggyback the rest of the way. Even though Naruto wasn't all that heavy, when you were forced to carry him for a long period of time when he was unconscious would be enough to tax anyone's strength, never mind a ten-year-old academy student.

"Mind moving? He's not that light you know…" Harry grumbled slightly and Sasuke, although a slightly worried look in his eyes, did what he was told, much to Harry's pleasure. It wasn't often that the younger boy actually did as Harry asked, at least, not without a little teasing first. Harry stumbled into the room a bit further and as carefully as he could lay Naruto gently on the vacant sofa. Sasuke looked over Harry's shoulder as he doubled over to catch his breath and his eyebrows shot up.

"Is that…Naruto?" Sasuke asked, surprised, although there was an irritated tint to his voice. "What the hell has that dobe done to get like that?"

Harry straightened, rubbing his back as it popped back into place. "Apparently mouthing off to the wrong people, who decided to use him as a personal punch-bag from what I gather," Harry frowned.

Sasuke snorted, shaking his head in disgust. "Che, sounds just like something he'd do. Knuckle-headed loudmouth…" Sasuke trailed off into inaudible grumbles.

"Alright, so he screwed up a bit," Harry said dryly, "but instead of wondering about his possible suicidal tendencies, think you could get the first aid box, baka."

"Hey!"

Harry smiled slightly as Sasuke stomped off angrily as he turned back to Naruto to try to make him a little more comfortable. It wasn't long before Sasuke had returned and Harry pulled out the iodine and dabbled a cotton wool bud into it to clean up the scratches and grazes, while Sasuke knelt beside them, silent and frowning. After a few minutes of watching him, Sasuke spoke again.

"So, why'd you bring him here anyways?" Sasuke asked, looking annoyed, but Harry had known the boy long enough to detect the curiosity hidden in his tone. "Wouldn't the hospital have been better?"

Harry paused in his work long enough to stare at Sasuke, before clutching at his heart in mock shock. "Was that…_concern_ I heard just now!" he gasped. He grabbed the boy and hugged him. "I'm so proud of you!"

Sasuke swatted him over the head, a slight blush on his normally pale face at the teasing. "Answer the question, Itoko!"

In a more serious tone, Harry went back to cleaning Naruto's wounds. "Well, after what I saw, it looks like a lot of the adults don't like Naruto-kun very much. And its not like I don't have any experience in this kind of stuff."

Both of them grimaced as the remembered some of their…ahem…more rough training sessions.

Finally, Sasuke snorted and got up. "Guess I can put up with the loser for a little while then," he grumbled, turning towards his room with his hands in his pockets. "But don't expect me to baby-sit the idiot."

"Nah, I'll just baby-sit the both of you," Harry shot back at Sasuke's retreating back – and ducked as a scroll went flying right where his head had been by a twitchy-eyebrowed Sasuke. "And I love you too," he called back.

"…Whatever."

Harry smiled after him and began packing up the first-aid kit and put it back with the draws once more, before flinging a comforter over Naruto's sleeping form, so that he wouldn't get too cold. Finally, he looked over at the scroll that Sasuke had been studying with a slight sigh. "Another training scroll, Sasuke? Are you obsessed? You already know just about all out Katon jutsu!"

Sasuke's head popped round the corner again. "I'm training so that I can beat Him," he growled. "Don't say I shouldn't-"

"I never said anything like that, baka," Harry countered, knowing exactly who he meant when he said 'Him'. He waved the scroll round his head. "I just think it's dumb to go over that stuff when you know it inside out already. And I already told you I'm gonna help too, so I'm pissed off you started without me."

Sasuke went to snatch the scroll from him, but Harry put his hand on the younger boy's forehead and pulled the scroll back, a mischievous look on his face and a large grin. "Now, now, Sasuke-chan, what did we say about manners?"

An almost identical look flashed in Sasuke's eyes and Harry thought he saw a slight grin. "I'll show you manners, Itoko!" and threw himself at Harry, causing him to squawk in protest as they mock battled across the floor. They tussled for a bit, until it finished with Harry pinning Sasuke face-down on the floor with his knees, one arm in an arm-lock and the scroll in the other hand. "Say uncle, Sasuke-chan! Come on, come on!"

"As if!" Sasuke growled back and attempted to kick him, but Harry just leaned away with a grin. Unfortunately, Sasuke's other foot collided with his back.

"Oi! Oh, now you're gonna get it!"

"Ano…"

Both Uchihas suddenly paused and glanced over at where a third voice had come from. Naruto now sitting up on the sofa with the blanket pooled around his waist and his blue eyes wide with shock as they flickered from Sasuke (who was still on the floor, pinned by Harry and had an almost dear-in-the-headlights expression on his face.) To Harry (who had Sasuke's arm pulled back and a scroll in the other hand, now looking sheepish.)

Harry and Sasuke quickly disentangled themselves from each other, Sasuke dusting himself off with his icy mask back on once more, while Harry coughed in embarrassment, whipping the scroll away again. Rubbing the side of his nose uncomfortably, Harry laughed nervously. "Eh heh…Yo, Naruto-kun. Feeling better?"

"Hai," Naruto said, still staring rather blatantly. "Where am I?" he asked, then pointed at Sasuke. "And whats Sasuke-teme doing here?"

Harry choked back a laugh as he saw the vain throb in Sasuke's temple. "I live here, dobe." He almost snarled.

"Wha! Hey, don't call me Dobe, bastard!"

"Yare, yare…" Harry muttered under his breath. He sauntered over and bonked them both on the head. "Alright, cut it out you two," he grumbled. He watched as Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other for a moment, before they 'humphed' loudly and turned away from each other. Harry rolled his eyes, but ignored it, instead turning to Naruto. "To answer the question, You're at our apartment. You passed out on the way back, so I didn't know where you lived, and the Hospital didn't look like a good choice at the time, so I brought you here. Now, think you two could behave while I make us something to eat? You are hungry, right?" he added to Naruto.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer, when his stomach rumbled rather loudly.

"I take that as a yes then?" Harry snickered slightly, before heading off to the kitchen, leaving Naruto laughing slightly as he rubbed the back of his head and Sasuke rolling his eyes.

Dinner that night was…interesting, to say the least. Unfortunately, Harry hadn't been shopping since he had met Naruto that time over a week ago, so all they had in the house was a few packets of instant ramen of varying flavours and a few other things. Luckily, it seemed that this was one of their guest's favourite foods, and immediately started to almost inhale the food, much to Sasuke's shock and Harry's amusement. The two younger boys had spent most of the time bickering and arguing that Harry had been hard pressed not to grin stupidly. Harry hadn't seen Sasuke acting so like his own age with someone other than himself since the incident, so it somehow made him feel happy to see him act like that. It wasn't until they almost tried to throttle each other and Harry had broken down into a fit of laughter that Sasuke actually seemed to notice what was going on. However, despite how haughty Sasuke tried to be afterwards, Harry did note that Sasuke seemed to be almost enjoying himself.

Either way, after their 'interesting' meal, Harry offered to take Naruto to his apartment, with Naruto's directions, of course, in order to 'fend off butch tom-boys' as Harry had joked.

"Oi, Itoko," Sasuke yelled towards the door as they were about to leave. "Don't let that loser get you in trouble."

"I'LL SHOW YOU LOSER!" Naruto yelled and went to dash back inside, but Harry just grabbed the back of his T-shirt and hauled him back down the corridor until they were out of hearing range.

From that day forth, Uzumaki Naruto began to frequent the Uchiha household. Of course, Sasuke hadn't been too pleased by it, but he never complained overly (read: he had yet to draw blood during the arguments), to which Harry was thankful, because he liked the younger blond. His cheerful energy easily lifted the depression that occasionally descended upon the two Uchihas. As time went on, Harry could tell that despite the rough start, it seemed that the relationship between the two younger academy students had evolved from dislike to something like a rivalry and friendship sort of based on 'friendly arguments'. Of course, the two boys' were too dense for their own good sometimes, in Harry's opinion.

Naruto seemed to like these visits, and had even started to call the older Uchiha 'Harry-nii' as a form of affection. It made Harry feel sort of warm when he said that – after the shock had worn off – so he never contested it. It had sort of stuck after that. But the first time he did, Sasuke practically spat out the drink he had been sipping on and soaked the poor person who was sitting opposite – which was, unfortunately, Harry himself. Of course, it had started another of their impromptu spar matches across the room, which could probably have been heard by the Hyugas who lived practically the other side of Konohagakure.

On the plus side, Sasuke had opened up a little more since then, although the younger boy was still cold to anyone and everyone outside. Seeing how hurt Naruto looked that first time, Harry had pulled the young blonde aside. He told him that Sasuke wasn't being harsh on him for no reason, but it would probably be best if Naruto was saved from suspicions and floods of questions from rabid Sasuke-fan girls if they found out he was friends with the 'ice prince of Konoha'.

Even though it had partly been a joke on Harry's part, it did stop Naruto from getting upset about it all. In fact, Harry was sure that was the reason Naruto seemed to start acting even more loud and obnoxious in order to save the dark haired boy from those rabid fan girls by taking their attention away from him. Thinking about it however…Harry shivered as he remembered his own fan girls – though thankfully, it wasn't as large a gathering as Sasuke's seemed to be becoming – he had to admit that nothing was more scary than a rabid fan girl out for your affections.

It had already been almost a month since then and Naruto had once more been at the Uchiha apartment for dinner, both the younger boys excitedly telling Harry about the new jutsu that they were learning while Harry listened and laughed at the bickering between them. It was late and was already starting to get dark by the time that Naruto sleepily told Harry that he should head home. As usual, Harry decided to escort him – he still wasn't sure why some of the villagers acted like they did towards the boy. The Ichiraku's ramen stand owners seemed to like Naruto as much as Harry did… although that might have something to do with that being Naruto's favourite eating place when he had money to spare. Either way, Harry wasn't going to risk another incident like the one he had saved the boy from that day.

So about ten minutes later, Harry and Naruto reached a block of one to two man apartments similar to the one Harry and Sasuke lived in, but looked as though they had seen better days. Harry remembered the first time he had seen it. The paint was chipped and cracked and – was that a rat just he saw? As Harry was musing about this, he saw Naruto pull out something out of the corner of his eye. Intrigued, Harry turned a little to see Naruto pulling out a key from the inside of a wallet shaped like a frog. Harry blinked. He had never seen that before!

"Ara?"

"Eh?" Naruto looked at Harry's sceptical look, before turning to look at what Harry was staring at. He chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Oh! Yeah, it was a present from Hokage-jijii for my birthday."

Harry blinked slightly in surprise. "You know Hokage-ojii?"

"Uh-huh, The old man's been helping me since I ran off…erm…left the orphanage. Hey!" Naruto interrupted himself, staring at Harry, "you know him too!"

"Aa," Harry murmured. "He's…been kind to us, since…" He trailed off, before he brought up memories of that night. However, Naruto frowned at this.

"Since what?"

"Since our family… It's nothing, Naruto-kun," Harry interrupted himself, shaking himself out of the dark memories with a smile at the younger boy. "Although, why a frog?" he pointed to the wallet in the younger boy's hand. Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick of taking Naruto's curiosity from what Harry had hinted at, although Harry was partly shocked the boy didn't know about the Uchiha Massacre. However Harry guessed that the information might have been made S-class information for the adults only. Even Neji and Tenten didn't know what had really happened, although from the way they watched Harry out of the corner of their eyes, it was as if they suspected something life changing and tragic had happened to him.

Naruto chuckled again. "I dunno. Didn't have anything else I could use anyway. I've even got a name for it! Harry-nii, meet Gama-chan! Gama-chan, meet Harry-nii!" Naruto laughed at Harry's WTF expression. Finally, a small smile settled on his pale face.

"Whatever, Naruto," he chuckled. "So, you gonna stare at 'Gama-chan' like that all night or what?"

Naruto blushed slightly and dug out the key, sticking it in the lock and giving it a turn, flinging open the door. Naruto turned to look at Harry, then smiled. "Hey, you wanna come in a second?"

Harry was thinking about apologising, that he really shouldn't stay too long, seeing at Sasuke was waiting for him and would probably fret, in a very Sasuke way, of course. However, looking at the hopeful look in the kid's eyes, Harry couldn't refuse. "…Sure."

"Yosh!" Naruto grinned, "come on!" the blonde boy grabbed Harry's wrist and pulled him inside. "Welcome to My apartment!" Naruto grinned.

Harry looked round the room with interest even as Naruto was chatting happily about something or other. However, there was a slight frown was on his face, take in the worn walls and carpet, the threadbare couch, rickety folding table and chairs and the pile of used ramen cups that were overflowing in the garbage can. The door to his bedroom was still open and you could see the room was large enough for the short bed and side table and nothing else. The bathroom was a small room with a shower and toilet, nothing more. It was, admittedly, better than Harry had thought from the outside, but compared to Harry's own apartment back at the Uchiha complex, it was barely livable. Just like Harry's apartment, however, it was only a one-room apartment.

Harry glanced at the younger boy. "You…live alone?" He asked slowly. _Just like Sasuke and me…_

Why did this surprise him, Harry wondered. After the way he had seen some people treat Naruto, and the fact that Harry had never seen hide nor hair of any family members when Harry had dropped Naruto off before tonight.

"Yup," Naruto said. "Ever since I left the orphanage. Old man Hokage let me get my own apartment. The furniture works and I don't spend a lot of time indoors anyway. The bills are cheep and the hot water doesn't go out too often. But I guess it's better than nothing!"

"Do you like living here?" Harry asked suddenly, causing Naruto to stumble to a halt.

"Huh?"

"Do you like living here?" Harry repeated.

"Well, I guess it's okay," Naruto started, although he looked confused. He gave Harry an odd look. "Why?"

Why… Why exactly was Harry asking him that anyway? He wondered mentally. Was he truly feeling so bad for the boy – did he truly feel such a connection to him? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they didn't have a true family. And it wasn't exactly as if they didn't have any room back at the complex. Harry looked away slightly.

"Back home, at the estate, everyone in the Uchiha clan lived there. An entire street, their own training halls, shops, houses…" Harry took a deep breath, then pressed on, needing to get it out, to have the boy understand a little. "About a month ago, the clan…they were…they…"

Naruto was looking at him nervously now. "What?" he asked. "They were what?"

Harry took a deep breath, and quietened his thumping heart, schooling his features as neutral as Sasuke's on a good day. "They were killed. All of them, by someone we looked up to. Only Sasuke and me survived…" He didn't mention that it was Itachi who did it. He refused to speak of the Tsukuyomi, of what he was forced to see.

"That's why…?" Naruto muttered. Harry guessed he meant why Sasuke had been missing from the academy. He guessed Iruka-sensei must have told them not to pester the last Uchihas.

"The street's empty 'cept for us," Harry continued. "And our apartment is in better condition and all. Oh, don't think this has anything to do with pity, squirt," He interrupted Naruto as he opened his mouth to argue. "Look, if anyone knows how annoying pity is, its us. It's just that it'd help us as well as help you. It's not like we don't have the room, and it'd help stop people beating you up and all, being at the complex, because only Uchihas and those we let in can come in – keeps away fan girls," Harry felt himself grimace slightly. "But did you know that, apart from with me, you were the only person who's got any reaction out of Sasuke since my aunt and uncle – his parents – we're killed?" He looked away, out of the slightly grubby windows. "It might help Sasuke if there was someone else living in the complex except us. Plus, It might help me too." He chuckled slightly and turned to look at Naruto's stunned face again. "I can tell you like pranks, like I do, and it'd be fun to see the stuff you come up with!" He looked away again, a slight blush on his pale cheeks. "Plus, I don't like being alone either.

"I'm not forcing you or anything," Harry continued, realising that it sounded like he was trying to make him move. "I mean, If you like living here or something, then that's fine. And, its not like you have to chose now-"

"I'll do it!"

"And I – what?" Harry stumbled to a halt. He stared at the younger boy, who was looking at him with glistening blue eyes that sparkled.

"I said I'd do it!" Naruto piped up. "If the key and lock works so I don't have to get locked out again, and, and if I get my own room!" He laughed when he saw Harry's dumbfounded face turned into a smile.

"I'm glad, Naruto-kun," Harry told him happily. "So, how about we get you to the apartment tomorrow?" Seeing Naruto's slightly disappointed expression, he jerked a thumb out the window, where it was fast growing dark. "Unless you want to do it in the dark!"

Naruto laughed. "Thank you so much, Harry-nii!" Before launching himself at Harry and hugging him, causing Harry to stiffen in surprise. He wasn't used to being hugged in such a way. Among the Uchihas, Sasuke was the most physical of them (except perhaps himself), but even he didn't launch at him like that. Harry patted his head awkwardly until Naruto blushed and pulled away again.

"So…er…I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" Harry asked, rubbing his nose with a slight smile.

"Hai! Ja ne, Harry-nii!"

Harry gave him a slight wave and left the building before taking off back towards the complex at a jog. In his mind, his thoughts were a blur. His offer – it had been so impulsive, so unplanned and…well, just so much like him. But Harry knew everything he said was true. He really did feel as though he felt a connection of some kind to the boy, although what it was, Harry didn't really know. However, he was sure that with the Uzumaki living in the Uchiha complex, Harry was sure that the place would become much more lively extremely soon.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Crap! Crap, crap crapcrapcrap!" Harry moaned, running a brush over his teeth and trying to pull his arm through his usual wide-necked T-shirt, as he dashed about the apartment. Grabbing his shorts and running into the bathroom, he had to skid back out again when the roll of arm and leg straps fell out of his hands and bounced across the floor, before dashing back in again. "I'm gonna be late!"

"How'd you manage to sleep through the alarm today anyway, Itoko," Sasuke muttered under his breath from his position on the sofa, shaking his head as Harry bolted back out again, hopping as he attempted to strap his leg as usual, and almost tripped and fell not long after. With a yelp, Harry lost his balance and dive-bombed behind the table. Sasuke sniggered.

Two days had passed since Harry and Naruto's convocation, and despite being busy, what with helping Naruto move his few belongings into one of the new apartments, Harry had not yet told Sasuke about their impromptu neighbour. Although he was sure by the way Sasuke hinted that he knew Harry was up to something. After all, Sasuke was an extremely smart kid, bordering on prodigy. However, he was sure that whatever Sasuke thought, he wasn't expecting what was truly happening.

Harry emerged from behind the table, his face flushed and his emerald eyes glaring kunai at him. "You're not helping, baka Itoko," Harry growled, straightening himself up as he finished tying his leg-straps. "Anyway, don't just sit there – we've got to go, unless you want Iruka-sensei or one of the other sensei giving us detention because we're late."

"You're the one who overslept," Sasuke growled, as they headed out towards the door. Harry grumbled slightly as he shoved the door open and locked it behind them - just as the door opposite moved.

Harry turned slightly as Sasuke's mouth dropped before he could school his usual emotional mask and he spluttered. Harry glanced over too and winced. Naruto had just emerged from the room, yawning loudly and stretching. However, this wasn't what caused Harry to wince. It was what he was wearing that made him feel his eyes were being burned out.

Covering them quickly, Harry grimaced. "Naruto, what on earth are you wearing! Are you trying to burn my eyes out?"

Indeed, Naruto was wearing the brightest shade of orange that existed. Almost florescent in colour, the jump suit almost shouted 'I'm over here, hit me!' to Harry's training shinobi senses. The boy, however, didn't seem to care at all as he bounced over to Harry.

"Harry-nii!" Naruto exclaimed. "It's a happy colour! You're always wearing dark colours, it's no wonder you're always get depressed and stuff!"

"So you're trying to make me tear my eyes out instead?" Harry argued, although he was smiling as he shielded his face.

"What is going on!" Sasuke hissed. Naruto and Harry turned back to him to see him glaring between the two.

"Yo, Sasuke! Ohayo!"

"What are you doing here dobe!" Sasuke growled.

"Oi, don't call me Dobe, bastard!"

Harry quickly stepped in before Sasuke threw himself at the other boy. "Look, Naruto's here cause I let him."

"…What!"

Harry rolled his eyes at Sasuke's icy, but dumbfounded expression. "Well, its not like we didn't have the room, baka," Harry said exasperated. "And it looked better than where he was at. And stop looking at me like that, you look like a fish." Sasuke's mouth shut with an audible click. Harry grinned and slung an arm around both Sasuke and Naruto, ignoring the irritated glares passing between the two. "Try to get along, both you squirts, seeing as you're neighbours now and all."

He wasn't sure, but Harry thought that the intensity of their glares had become as such that electricity was passing between their eyes.

"You'll be best friends in not time," Harry chuckled.

If looks could kill, Harry was sure that Naruto and Sasuke would have made him die a thousand deaths at their glares. However, as it was, they just made Harry laugh.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry and Sasuke turned slightly, their latest mouthful of homemade cooking (courtesy of Harry himself) half to their mouths, watching in horror as Naruto started to almost inhale the food from his bowl. Harry was too gob-smacked to say anything – even Sasuke looked like his eyes were about to fall out. Finally, Sasuke manage to gain enough control over his jaw to choke out. "At this rate, you're going to end up killing yourself, dobe"

"No 'm no', 'astha'd" Naruto said around a mouth full of half-chewed rice balls.

"Ugh, at least swallow before you mouth off, moron."

"Don't tell me what to do, jack-ass!" Naruto shot back, before whipping round to Harry, his eyes sparkling as he held the bowl up. "Harry-nii, that was sooooo good! I've never tasted onigiri that tastes as good as Ichiraku's ramen before!"

"How can you tell?" Harry asked weakly. Harry knew he himself could be a quick eater if he wanted to, but that was ridiculous! "You couldn't possibly have tasted any of that!"

"Nuh-uh! It was brilliant! It was amazing!" Naruto was practically bouncing on his seat. Harry looked away, rubbing a hand over his hair with a slight blush. Sasuke, however, was smirking slightly.

"Hn, so you're finally getting a vocabulary other than 'bastard', eh, baka."

Naruto's head whipped round so fast that Harry was sure he heard the bones in his neck crack, glaring at Sasuke. "…Teme…!"

Sasuke sighed with a slight shrug, "Guess not."

"I'll kill you!"

Harry grabbed both their collars as Naruto tried to pounce on Sasuke with a sigh. It had been like this since Sasuke had discovered Harry had let Naruto live with them, although it hadn't changed much, though Sasuke was now giving his best glare towards his cousin for Harry's 'insane neighbourly bonding schemes', as Sasuke was staring to call it. "Alright, calm down you two. I swear, can't you get along a little better?"

Harry forced himself not to step back when the two boys glared hard at each other and it was as if the atmosphere had become charged with ill intent from both the boys. It was as if lightning was passing between their eyes. Somehow, by the look in both of their eyes – a look that Harry himself knew all to well (hell, he probably invented the look) – made Harry feel all of his warning senses go off. Somehow, he felt as though a prank war of some kind was about to begin. After all, with Harry as an influence on the other Uchiha and with Naruto's obvious pranking skills, it couldn't be anything else declared with those scheming eyes.

He was saved, however, when there was a sharp rapping on the door.

"Hold that thought," Harry muttered, dropping the boys' back in their seats and swiftly moved out of the way towards the hall. Sliding the chain on the door, he opened it as far as the chain would allow. "Hai?"

Harry paused when he saw the shinobi on the other side of the door. An ANBU, if the bird-like mask – a hawk - was anything to go by, and female judging by the shape within the standard uniform. Short, chin-length hair of pale brown shifted over her mask. Seeing Harry, she bowed slightly. "Uchiha-san," she said, her voice soft. She stood once more. "I was sent by the Hokage to tell you that he wishes to speak with you."

"Guess Hokage-ojii wants to have another heart to heart, ne?" Harry asked, wincing slightly at a crash that came from somewhere behind him. Some how, he did not want to even imagine what a mess his apartment was becoming. Perhaps having a talk with Sarutobi wouldn't be too bad, as long as he didn't have to face whatever had happened behind him for a while. "Tell him I'm coming, please, ANBU-san."

"Hai." The ANBU vanished in a puff of smoke.

Without looking over his shoulder, Harry yelled. "I'm going to visit Hokage-ojii. You better not be destroying my apartment, I happen to like it standing!"

"Uh…Hai…Niisan."

"Hai, Itoko…"

He winced a little at the suspicious nervousness in both boys' voices; however, he pushed the shiver away and disappeared from the room.

It wasn't long before he reached the Hokage tower and gave a slight nod towards the two shinobi standing on guard for morning duty. The two waved back, recognising him from his previous visits every week or so on the old Hokage's request. After exchanging a quick word with the young secretary, who waved him in not long after, Harry sauntered to the thick wooden door, behind which, the most powerful shinobi in Konohagakure. Taking a deep breath, Harry composed himself, letting it out slowly, before he lifted his fist and hammered on the door, swinging it open before anyone could say anything.

"Oi, Jijii! You wanted to see me again?"

Harry strode into an airy room that was sparsely decorated, except for a large desk sitting in the middle, behind which sat the man who was considered to be the 'god of the Shinobi'… Who looked for the entire world like he was about to be buried alive under a load of paperwork on his desk. All that could be seen of the old Hokage was the silvery grey hair and his liver-spot-marked forehead (the low, cone-shaped hat was laying carelessly on the chair close by, away from the danger of being squashed under the papers.)

If Harry had been any of the other Uchiha members when they had been alive, he would have been determined not to show himself up. He would have been calmly masked to hold his own dignity and, as an Uchiha, he would never do anything that immature to prevent himself from laughing his socks off right there and then. But Harry was no ordinary Uchiha, even now.

Stuff dignity.

Harry howled with laughter, ignoring the dirty look Sarutobi was giving to him, before he grabbed at a pile of papers that were teetering and about to bury him under the stack. "Glad you find it so amusing, Harry-kun," Sarutobi muttered through his pipe as he righted them and stood, brushing off his robe-like uniform.

Harry stopped himself from laughing, although he did snigger every now and again.

"So, I see that you seem well. How are Sasuke and Naruto?"

Harry stopped sniggering in shock. "Hey, how'd you know I even know Naruto?"

"Oh, lets just say that I have my own ways –"

"What, you mean using that seeing ball to peek on people? I always knew you were hentai, Ojii."

Sarutobi's eyebrow twitched. However, he coughed and continued. "Naruto also told me about the fact he moved into the Uchiha complex. He seems to look up to you."

Harry shrugged with a slight frown. "Yeah, well, that's not surprising when no one else seems to like him. Really, he can be annoying, but the squirt isn't that bad. I bet you know why too." He glared at the man, but Sarutobi didn't answer.

"You'll know when you're older, I'm sure."

"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT, OLD MAN!" Harry yelled.

"Hm, Naruto seems to be rubbing off on you, Harry-kun," the Hokage pointed out.

"Meddling old man…" Harry grumbled, shooting Sarutobi dark glares. Sarutobi chuckled. Ignoring that to save whatever of his pride left, Harry threw himself in the spare chair. "So, why'd you call me anyway?" he grumbled.

The Hokage took a seat opposite and surveyed him, taking his pipe from his mouth and blowing a smoke ring towards the roof. "I wanted to ask you how you'd feel if you took the graduation exam early in a few months time."

"…NANIIIII?" Harry gasped. It shocked him to the core that he was being offered the chance. In fact, since the Uchiha clan had been massacred, Harry hadn't even thought about trying to graduate early. Who did he have to prove himself to seeing as Fugaku was dead and Itachi was now a missing-nin because of the murders? But that also meant no one was pushing him towards it either, so… "What brought that up?"

"Its not that you are not able, according to your scores as rookie of the year," Sarutobi answered. "It was actually a request on behalf of Fugaku before he died." He looked at Harry intently, as if expecting Harry to break down from the reminder. However, Harry kept his face blank, thinking hard on Sasuke and Naruto, the fact that they needed him. Finally he continued. "He thought that you would be ready for the exam, especially since you trained Sasuke in the Gokakyu no jutsu."

"…I'm not even going to ask how you know about that…" Harry muttered, shaking his head. "But why're you asking me now?"

"I promised I would. So, what do you think? Do you feel ready for an exam?" Sarutobi asked.

"Well…" Harry thought about it for a moment. "Well, yeah. I did have tutors in the Uchiha clan as well as the stuff at the academy, because that's the only way to become a ninja, isn't it?" Harry shrugged. "I want to give it a try. Even if I don't pass, I can try again when I'm 12, can't I?"

The Hokage nodded at Harry's assessment, "I detect you have answered truthfully, so let me be the first one to tell you then. I have decided to grant you a pass for early graduation." He smiled. "The graduation exam for Genin is in four months. I suggest you use the time to review all you know."

Harry grinned. "Hey, for a hentai old man, you're pretty cool."

Sarutobi chuckled. "Still a brat I see." The Hokage looked back towards the paperwork with a sigh, before turning back to Harry once more. "Well, I think you had better get back to your apartment, seeing as you left both Sasuke and Naruto alone."

Harry groaned, getting to his feet. "Don't remind me," he muttered, anime tears streaming down his cheeks. "My poor apartment'll be in ruins, I just know it!" He turned away and dashed out of the room, throwing a quick "Thanks jijii, see ya jijii!" over his shoulders, trying to ignore the quick chuckle coming from the room behind him.

When Harry reached the Uchiha complex, he hesitated at the gates; his eyes squeezed shut, dreading that the apartment would be in flames or something (it was common knowledge that Uchihas had a certain fascination with fire, even when fighting. Why else would they have come up with the Katon jutsu?). However, he couldn't hear flames or anything, so he forced himself to open his eyes to see the apartment…

Still standing.

…So far so good - But now he was worried that the two younger boys had killed themselves or something.

Making his way up to his apartment, everything seemed to be normal, except for the loud sounds coming from his own rooms.

"This is all your fault, Naruto!"

Eyebrows raised, Harry unlocked the door and, hesitating, entered. And immediately wished he hadn't. The room looked as though a tornado had hit it. The table was upside-down and was sitting somewhere across the room, while the sofa was on its side. The carpet was rucked up and it almost looked as though the room was covered in party streamers or something and everything looked wet and covered in something green. Two figures were arguing heatedly in the middle of the room.

"It's your fault that this happened, bastard!"

"I'm not the one who thought setting up a trap that involved a water hose was a good idea, loser."

"Yeah, this coming from the guy who thought using food dye was good!"

"When Itoko comes back, you are so going down for this!"

"Ano…"

The two figures froze and a shiver seemed to travel up their spines. Slowly, very slowly, they turned round to look at him.

"It's not my fault!" both said at once, before stopping abruptly and snapping to glare kunai at each other.

"It was your fault! You declared the prank war!" Naruto yelled.

"I told you to name a challenge – you chose pranks, so it was your fault, dobe!" Sasuke snarled.

Harry blinked at the two arguing boys. He blinked again. Then suddenly burst out into a fit of laughter, hanging off the door in order to stop himself from falling flat on his face and hammering the floor with his hands and feet and crying hysterically in his laughter.

Indeed, if anyone at the academy could see the two boys now, they would probably either be rolling on the floor in laughter or completely mortified at the sight that met his eyes.

Naruto looked as though he had had some sort of accident with something toxic…or at least got on the wrong side of bright green dye. Indeed, Naruto's bright blonde hair was now an almost neon green and his skin had bright blue powdery blotches on them. Next to him, Sasuke looked extremely sorry for himself, soaked to the skin and his hair sticking up with what looked like something sticky, like honey.

"Y-you guys…look so… r-ridiculous!" Harry gasped out, sliding to the floor and holding his stomach as he howled with laughter.

Both boys looked as though they were about to yell at Harry, before they glanced at each other, actually taking note of what had happened to the other boy, rather than what the other boy had done to them. Sasuke and Naruto snorted, there was a chuckle, then an all out laugh as they truly saw just how stupid they looked – Naruto looking like some sort of alien from a cartoon and Sasuke resembling a drowned porcupine. They laughed so hard, in fact, that both boys were holding onto each other to stop themselves from collapsing to the floor.

Truly, if anyone had entered the Uchiha complex then, they would have thought that all three of them had finally cracked.

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

-Sama – a suffix used for addressing someone of higher rank than oneself

-Kun – a suffix that indicates familiarity of affection. Also used among male students, not so often with females.

Ano sa – hey!

Kami – god

Itoko – cousin

Ja ne – bye

-Chan – suffix meaning little or dear

Onigiri – rice ball

Dobe – not sure of the meaning for that – something like 'dead last' maybe?

Ojisama – honourable uncle

Itadakimasu – no meaning, but like saying grace before a meal

Hai – yes

Oi – hey! – Vulgar form used in a fight for instance.

-San – suffix meaning Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms

Sempai – upper classman

Baka – idiot

Teme – a vulgar form of you, usually insulting and translated to mean something like bastard

Yare, yare – my, my – a verbal sigh

Nii/ Niisan – big brother

Ohayo – good morning

Hentai - pervert

Ara – huh

Ano – um/er

Nani – what

Naze – why

Ojii – grandpa

Jijii – gramps

Tadaima – I'm home

**Chosha's notes**

There you go, another chapter done. If there's anything you would like to know that I haven't explained, just tell me. Either way, please review! I also have a challenge for anyone who wants to take it up. Firstly, if anyone wants to do fanart or anything, please do so, cause I'd love to see what you come up with. The other challenge is to write a mini fic about that prank war that I mentioned, cause I'm lazy. Perhaps when I've finished Uchiha Potter, I might do a few side stories, but for now…

Anyway, one last thing to do…

**Uchiha Potter chapter three preview!**

Harry: Woah! I'm off to do the graduation exam to become a genin! I can't wait – hang on a second, who is that old guy? He keeps talking about my parents and wants me to go to some weird school for magic, but I promised Itoko I wouldn't leave him. Gah! I'm so confused! Naruto, Sasuke, what do you guys think I should do? Next episode: The Mysterious Letter – a Past revealed. Look forward to it!

Sa, Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx

_Beta-read by Naruki-uke_


	4. Chapter 3: The Mysterious Letter

**Chosha's Notes**

Konnichiwa all and a happy New Year to everyone! Welcome back to Uchiha Potter! Firstly, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers for their comments. I know I miss-spelt Sasuke mother's name in the first chapter, but I decided that I wont do anything about it just yet. However, I will go over the story once it is finished to fix any mistakes. Please tell me if you spot any, however, so I can fix them when I do that. Anyway, enough of that for now. Let's get on with the show!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own either Harry Potter of Naruto, or any of the characters that appear in either. So no suing me, ne.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Harry met Naruto, a young boy in Sasuke's year and, feeling a connection to him, lets him live at the Uchiha complex. While Sasuke and Naruto argue and slowly gain an understanding (…er…sort of…) Harry is asked if he would like to take the genin exam early by the Hokage. Harry agrees and the exam is set to begin in only four months time!

**Chapter Three**

**The Mysterious Letter – A Past Revealed**

Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-bee-!

Crash!

Harry sat up blearily, his unruly hair sticking up at even more odd angles than usual, rubbing his eyes with a hand as he yawned loudly, still clutching hold of the blanket with his other hand. Somewhere across the other side of the room lay the alarm clock that had once been sitting on his bed-side table, but was now almost in bits against the wall at the other side of the room. However, Harry ignored it as he threw the cover from himself and stumbled to his feet, automatically beginning his usual morning stretches while his mind decided to wake up and catch up to his body. Finishing them, he pulled out a new pare of shorts and the usual wide-necked T-shirt – both a deep blue in colour, and the T-shirt with its usual Uchiha fan on the back – and headed to the bathroom to change.

Splashing cold water in his face, Harry shuddered slightly at the shock of cold on warm skin, but that was all as he washed, before glancing up at the mirror over the sink. Now, Harry wasn't a vain person at all, despite having a, what girls tended to call a 'cute' face, which would one day be handsome. In fact, the only reason Harry bothered was to make sure he looked at least slightly presentable. As usual, his jet-black hair stood up all over the place, although it had a more bed-head look than Naruto's hedgehog of hair. His long bangs brushed deep emerald eyes that looked almost black in dim lights, set in a pale face. Harry spared a slight frown at the strange lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, before he quickly combed part of his bangs to cover it.

He didn't know why, exactly, but Harry had always hated that scar. It wasn't the fact that Harry had a scar that bothered him. After all, if he was going to become a shinobi, then he expected that he we would get all sorts of scars. Hell, even then highest-ranking ANBU got scars. No, it was just that Harry disliked the way people looked at it, or commented on it's strangeness at times, although this was often only amongst Fugaku and the Uchiha elders when they were alive. It was as if the scar signified something that Harry didn't know that somehow set him apart. The way they used to look at it was as if they expected Harry to become a prodigy to rival even Itachi, and it secretly shamed him when he couldn't rise up to that expectation. So Harry had taken to hiding it.

He snorted slightly and turned away from the mirror to grab toothbrush and toothpaste and begun to clean his teeth with quick sure strokes. A quick gargle later, he spat the remaining paste from his mouth and wiped his mouth with a towel. Out of habit, he glanced at the lopsided calendar that hung on the back of the bathroom door and blinked in surprise. The days on the calendar of the month of July had been crossed off with red marker up to today's date – which was circled roughly. Within the circle were three words – '_genin exam, 9:30'_.

Harry blinked at it a few more times, then a slow smile spread over his face. Finally! The day he had spent hours of the last few months practising all the jutsu he knew in preparation for. The day he had been waiting to show everyone he was ready to become a full-fledged shinobi had finally arrived!

Harry grinned, pulling on his T-shirt and snatched up his arm and leg bindings energetically.

_Watch out Konoha!_ Harry thought with as mental, maniacal cackle. _Uchiha Harry is going to fly through this exam!_

Whistling cheerfully, Harry padded barefooted down the hall with a sudden urge to skip (hearing muffled movements from within the next room, signifying his younger cousin rising) and into the kitchen. Dropping the roll of bandages on the table, Harry began to pull a bowl out of the draw, some milk from the fridge and cereal from one of the cupboards, settling himself down at the table, as he started to pour the cereal into the bowl. Running his fingers through his hair, Harry started for a spoon and, muttering a quick 'Itadakimasu', began eating.

It wasn't until Harry had finished his bowl and was happily whistling tunelessly to himself as he expertly stared to wrap his shins with the grey cloth, tying each end in navy blue, before starting on the other leg and his arms with the same slow but sure movements, that Sasuke wandered into the room, yawning loudly and rubbing an eye with one hand.

"Ohayo, Sasuke," Harry chirped energetically.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, flopping down on the seat opposite and reaching for milk. Harry chuckled slightly. That was Sasuke for you – couldn't get a word out of him until he had woken up a bit. Harry was quite sure he was only moving by will alone.

Breakfast was surprisingly a quiet affair in the Uchiha household – unless, of course, Naruto had managed to drag himself out of bed in time to catch some from his 'older brother'. (Harry guessed that Naruto wasn't going to stop calling him that anytime soon. Plus, Harry had started to enjoy being called an older brother.) Then the apartment would be alive with joking and arguments between the two younger boys. However, in those months that had passed, the arguments had lost their harsh edges to them and now held a sort of familiarity and closeness to them that one would expect from brothers. It amazed Harry at first, seeing how much Sasuke was improving since the massacre, the way that Sasuke seemed to look to the blonde as an adopted brother as much as Naruto did him, although both would deny it if asked.

"Of course, whatever you say, 'ototo'," Harry had chuckled the time he had pointed it out. He was met by the wining of both boys.

"Niisan!"

"Aniki!"

Aniki… That was another thing that had changed since the massacre. Sasuke had only used to call Harry 'Aniki' occasionally – like when he was being particularly brotherly. The last time he had heard it from Sasuke had been when Harry had spotted him training alone that day he promised to teach him the Gokakyu no jutsu. But since Naruto had begun living with them, he had begun to call him that rather than Itoko. He guessed it was because feeling that he had close family was what was helping him recover from the trauma. Personally, Harry thought it was Naruto's influence. Besides, hadn't Harry himself become attached to them, like they were his own little brothers?

The word 'oniichan', however, was never once heard in the house. No one wanted to bring up the memory of the person they had once looked up to, now gone rouge

Sparing a little sympathy for the boy, Harry pushed the cereal over towards him to make it easier to reach as he carried his bowl over to the sink, ruffling Sasuke's hair as he passed.

Sasuke yelped and swatted at him, glaring, but Harry just grinned back and continued to the sink.

"Why are you so energetic this morning anyways, aniki?" Sasuke grumbled as he patted his hair back down again. However, Harry also detected a slight wine to his voice that no one but he and Naruto would be likely to detect, as if it were a crime to be so happy first thing.

"It's the genin exam today, Sasu-chan," Harry replied giddily, despotising his dishes in the sink.

Sasuke blinked a few times, before a slow smile spread across his face. "So your gonna be a shinobi today? Show 'em what you got, Aniki!"

Harry grinned. "Don't you worry, Sasuke, I plan to give them hell!"

Sasuke groaned at the scheming look on his cousin's face. "Don't go overboard, Harry…"

Harry just whistled innocently. "Who? Me? I wouldn't dream of it, 'ototo'. Trust me."

"That's the exact reason why I shouldn't trust you, Aniki." Sasuke pointed out. Harry pouted.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

There was something distinctly un-nerving about having ever pair of eyes in the room turn to stare at you at the same time, Harry thought with a shudder. The classroom was filled with at least a dozen or more hopeful academy students waiting for their names to be called to take the exam and, hopefully, become a part of Konoha's genin ranks. And as soon as he stepped through the door, all the students – all of who several years older than Harry himself – fell deathly silent. All eyes swerved to meet him and it took all his schooling amongst the Uchihas to stop himself from flinching back. Schooling his face blank and icy as Sasuke on a bad day, he strode into the room, hands in his pockets. Flopping down on a seat next to a boy with a large build (he was too nice to call it fat, but…) squinty eyes and light brown hair, he entwined his fingers together, fixing his eyes on the board in front of the class. Mentally, he forced himself not to begin to fidget as all eyes followed him.

The silence continued for a few more minutes, when finally, hissed whispered flooded the room.

"Who's that kid? I've never seen him in class before-"

"Is he here for the exam?"

"No way, he's too young! He can't be much over ten."

Harry closed his eyes with a sigh, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He was, for once, glad that his uncle had beaten Uchiha manners into him (almost literally sometimes). At least he wasn't about to jump up and yell at the whole lot of them that they were annoying idiots whom didn't know when not to stare. _And I'm almost eleven, baka!_ He mentally howled at them.

Thankfully, just as he was about to throw all caution to the wind and punch the guy next to him who would just not stop bugging him (thought thankfully for himself or the other guy he wasn't sure) a man snapped open the sliding door and stepped in, silencing the class. He was chunin, by the looks of his vest that was identical to the one Iruka-sensei wore, with spiky red-brown hair and beard. He was taller than Iruka, with wide muscular shoulders and had a scar that started near his temple and finished somewhere within his thick beard, where some of the hair had become silver in colour. He looked over the group for a moment with grey-blue eyes, before he cleared his throat.

"Alright, listen up everyone," he announced in a gruff voice. "As you all know today is the Genin examination. For the exam, you will be tested on your ability to perform the basic ninjutsu, and Genjutsu. If you pass the exam you will receive a Leaf hitae-ate and will meet back here in two days time to be placed in a three-man cell with a Jounin sensei. If you don't pass, you'll repeat the year and can try again for the exam next year. Everyone understand?" everyone nodded or muttered a yes. Some even had confident smirks on their faces. The sensei nodded. "Good. When I call your name you will come into this room behind me were you will be judged on your skill."

The man looked down at his notes that he held in one large hand and nodded. "Alright, lets get started. Akimichi Kunio."

Harry grimaced slightly. Great, so they would be called in alphabetical order. Perfect, now he'd have to deal with those stares and mutterings for ages, especially since 'Uchiha' began with 'U' and was thus almost at the end of the alphabet.

As he was mentally griping to himself, the large boy that had been sitting next to Harry got up and made his way to the room, disappearing within it. A few minutes passed before Kunio emerged, grinning as he arranged his new hitae-ate on his head.

"Amano Kotaro!"

And the list continued. Boys and girls entered one at a time, almost everyone passing, although he was sure that at least one of them didn't. However, he wasn't particularly interested, seeing as he was doing his best at ignoring the people who tried to interrogate him about why he was there. In the end, he crossed his arms and rested his chin on them, looking for the entire world like he was asleep.

In fact, he wasn't sure if his deterrent had actually turned into real sleep or not when he finally heard the loud voice of the teacher who had just came back into the class (there weren't many people without headbands on now) and called the next name.

"Uchiha Harry"

The effect was instantaneous. The moment his name left the man's lips, the hiss of whispers stared once more.

"He's an Uchiha!"

"My sister talks about him all the time! Uchiha Harry – he's meant to be the best in his class!"

"No wonder he's here then! The Uchihas were all brilliant shinobi…"

"Think he'll pass?"

"Dunno, he's still a kid-"

"I bet he will!"

"You're on!"

Harry sighed mentally and followed the male teacher out of the room, letting the whispers wash over him. He was almost in heaven when the door was closed and the silence fell upon his ears.

It was a small room they had entered; probably big enough to have a one-on-one spar with someone, but no bigger than Harry's apartment. At the front was a desk, with several navy-blue hitae-ate bearing the metal with the leaf symbol on them. Behind this desk sat the bearded teacher and a young man (also chunin) with silvery hair that reached his jaw in length.

The bearded man surveyed Harry for a second, before he smiled, "Uchiha Harry, so you are the one the Hokage signed up to take the graduation exam early. Very well. For the test, you must perform a henge and create three Bushin. You may begin."

_That's it? Harry gaped. "All of that reviewing and studying the last four months, and all I have to do is make a bloody henge and three Bushin? Pathetic…_ Harry thought as he moulded some of his chakra. If that was it, he was going to breeze through this exam. And to think, he had been getting nervous earlier!

"**Henge!**"

There was a soft 'poof' and when the ninja smoke cleared, in Harry's place now stood a perfect replica of the Chuunin sensei, complete with thick beard and scared face. The Chuunin nodded his approval and made a mark on his clipboard. Harry let a slight smirk flicker the corner of the chunin replica's face, before he released the henge in another soft poof.

"And now for the three bushin you have to create," he said.

Harry smirked. _Why make it so easy?_ He was going to prove to them just how capable a shinobi he could be, especially since he had his old tutor's reputation on him. Plus, he wanted to show Sarutobi that he could do it. Besides, hadn't he promised to 'give 'em hell'? He was going to go one up on them! He crossed his fingers, moulding chakra once more. With a smirk, he announced, **"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"**

Poof!

There now stood four perfect Harry clones in a neat row waiting for a command, each with their fingers still in the cross-seal. The two Chuunin's jaws slammed on the floor, their eyes standing out of their heads. If it weren't for the fact that Harry wanted to make it look natural and not the result of trying to show them up, he would have, along with his Bunshin, been on the floor, laughing his head off.

However, the seconds ticked passed and they weren't doing anything.

"I think we broke them," one of the Bunshin chirped to him.

Another clone snorted with laughter.

"Hey, so, did I pass or what?" Harry asked, allowing the Bunshin to dissipate.

The chunin looked at each other, then, picking their jaws up off the floor and, not even conferring with each other, wrote 'PASS' on the clipboard. With a grin, Harry took the hitae-ate and immediately tied it found his head, covering his lightning bolt shaped scar completely, although his hair seemed to stand up even more unruly than before over the top.

With that, Harry just winked at the sensei and walked out of the room without another word, hands behind his head and restraining himself from skipping every alternate step. When Harry emerged, the newly made genin stared at him, then at his headband, then finally about half of them started passing money around, having obviously lost the bet. Harry just snorted, shaking his head as he returned to his seat.

There were only two more people after Harry, both of whom emerged looking pleased with themselves and supporting their new hitae-ate. Soon after, the chunin emerged as well. The bearded chunin stepped forwards. "To everyone still here, congratulations on passing the genin exam. You are all to report to the Hokage tower tomorrow to have your ninja licence instated and, at nine o'clock two days from now you are all to meet here for induction. There you will be arranged into your three-man cells and meet your new Jonin instructors. Don't be late. Dismissed."

Harry was one of the first out of the door, and it wasn't because he wanted to get away from curious sempai. He had finally become a shinobi, and without even activating his sharingan – just like he had said he would. Now all that needed to happen was for Sasuke and Naruto to become shinobi as well and join him, although that was still a few years off, but it was a start. Still, he had passed and that meant one thing – party time at the Uchiha house!

Somewhere in the back of his head, he could almost feel the disapproval from the Uchiha elders from the beyond, but he chose to ignore that fact. There was hardly ever time to party any other time. He grinned. Now, all he had to do was wait for Sasuke and Naruto, then the fun would begin!

Meanwhile, in the office of the Hokage tower, sitting in a small room leading off from that of a paper-work covered desk, Sarutobi watched in amusement as Uchiha Harry grinned to himself as he leapt away to get things ready for what was obviously going to be a celebratory party for him becoming a genin. He chuckled pleasantly. It was nice to see Harry smile and laugh again. He had been afraid that when Itachi had betrayed Konoha and slaughtered his clan, that Harry and Sasuke would have fallen into depression. However, it seemed that both boys were stronger than he thought. Or perhaps it was because of each other's presence that they had got so far to healing. He had been surprised when Naruto had excitedly informed him that Harry had offered him a place to stay as well. To him, it seemed that the three orphans might just become the family they needed to become strong, perhaps some of the strongest shinobi in Konoha, just as Arashi would have wanted them to become.

A soft popping sound caught Sarutobi's attention and he immediately recognised the chakra signature behind him. He stayed still with shock for a moment, hardly able to believe what he was feeling. Was it really that time already? Arashi had mentioned it to him, but… He hoped that the boy would be ready, all things considering.

He closed his eyes with a slight smile, before turning to look over his shoulder at the man who was standing behind him, half covered in shadow, except for a long, flowing silvery beard and hair, and baby blue eyes that twinkled like stars in the candle-light.

"Sarutobi-kun," the man said pleasantly. "My, it's been so long since I saw you last, old friend."

"So it has, you barmy old coot," Sarutobi snickered slightly, smiling to the man. "Welcome back to Konoha, Albus-kun."

No one really had any idea just what the appearance of Albus Dumbledore in Konoha after ten years would change the fate of the village hidden in the leaves, especially not how much it would change the destiny of one Uchiha Harry.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry yawned widely as he mussed up his hair and straightened his new hitae-ate with a hand drowsily, still half asleep as he stumbled into the hall of his apartment to collect the morning post. The impromptu party celebrating Harry making Genin (although Sasuke had just smirked, as if to say 'Of course he made it, he is my cousin/brother after all') had lasted long into the night. Harry was actually surprised they hadn't received complains form the neighbouring street about the noise – although the fact that none but Uchihas and whoever they allow in are permitted to enter the Uchiha complex, so that might have been the reason. Still, because of this Harry was still absolutely tired.

_All right, next time we have a party I am so not going to eat that much dango before bed again_, Harry grumbled to himself as he yawned again. _And less sweets, too. I really didn't need that sugar-rush that late…or was that early? Hn…Damn, I knew Naruto was Hyper at the best of times, but both him and Sasuke on a sugar rush too – that was just freaky!_

Shaking his head to try and rid the picture of Naruto and Sasuke trying to see which one of them could eat more sweets than the other, and in the end both having to run out of the room to throw up, Harry snorted and picked up the stack of mail that was laying all over the floor, shuffling through it. There were two welfare checks, ore for both himself and Sasuke, on time. He idly wondered if Naruto's had come through from last month or not yet. There were several bills, most of which were about ready to be paid anyway, so Harry just put them to one side. There was a magazine subscription for Sasuke, which Harry tucked under one arm to give to his cousin once he was up, and there was also a load of junk mail that Harry didn't even bother to look at but immediately tossed in the bin. He normally would have burnt it, but it was still too early to exercise his slight pyromania. A few more bills, an early birthday card – was it almost July 31st already? He worked it out in his head for a moment – god, it was his birthday in four days time! Who'da thunk it? Another letter for Sasuke, a parchment envelope to one Mr H. Potter, another magazine, one on different Shinobi weaponry order form, and-

_Hold the phone._

Harry shuffled the letters back round to the weird envelope that seemed to be made from some sort of parchment. Who on earth wrote on parchment anyway? And the way it was written definitely wasn't in the usual way. Come to think of it, who on earth was H. Potter anyway? The only people who lived in the Uchiha complex were himself, Sasuke and Naruto.

Harry sighed, slipping the letter into his shorts' pocket. Well, there was no point leaving it in the bin, even if it obviously wasn't for anyone there, despite the address seemingly pointing to Harry's own room – which was almost freaky. Perhaps this H. Potter had stalkers, but they got the wrong address. Either way, Harry was going to see the Hokage today as it was once he had his photo taken for his shinobi licence, so perhaps he'd know what to do about the odd letter.

Pushing that thought to one side to think on later, Harry tucked the letters under his arm and turned back towards the apartment again.

"Oi, Sasuke, if your going to have breakfast and get to the academy on time, then you'd better get your butt out of bed now!"

"Gah! Aniki, why didn't you tell me sooner!" came a yell from within the depths of Sasuke's room and the door slammed open as Sasuke bolted into the bathroom. Harry snickered, wondering what all of Sasuke's admirers would think if they saw him scrambling out of his room wearing nothing more than his boxers like that. Sasuke stuck his head out of the bathroom with a pout on his face. "And stop laughing, Harry!"

Which, of course, just made him laugh all the more.

About an hour or so later, Harry and Sasuke were about to leave the apartment, exactly as Naruto was leaving his.

"Hey, Niisan! That hitae-ate looks so cool on you!" Naruto piped in delight when he saw the two of them. "I can't wait until I get mine…"

"Heh, don't worry about that too much just yet, Naruto," Harry said, mussing up the younger boy's hair. "I'm sure you two'll be great when it's your exam."

"You think Sasuke and me'll be on the same team?" Naruto asked.

"Not sure if that's a good or bad thing," Sasuke mumbled with a slight grin.

"Hey!" Naruto yelped, sounding offended. Sasuke swatted Naruto, who ground out an "Oi, Sasuke-temee!"

"I just meant that your good at fighting – you're about as good as me there. Its just you don't think about what you do before you do it."

"He's got a point, you know," Harry added with an apologetic grin when it looked as though Naruto was about to interrupt.

Naruto pouted, "yeah, that's right, pick on the short guy, you…you meanies!"

"Don't think I don't know about that stink bomb you were planning to set off in my apartment, Naruto," Harry added, swatting at Naruto with mock seriousness.

"Awww man, you knew about that?" Naruto wined. Then he grinned. "I'll beat you at pranks yet, Niisan!"

Harry hummed in answer. "Come on, otherwise we're going to be late. Well, at least you two will. I've still got a little time before I have to get my licence done."

Sasuke shot him a look. "Thanks for the concern, Aniki," Sasuke grumbled sarcastically. Harry just chuckled slightly at that.

"Either way, be good you two," Harry grinned, before he headed off at a trot for the Hokage tower. "Ja ne!"

It didn't take him long to get to the Hokage tower and he immediately followed the directions to where he was to have his photo taken by a photographer-nin. It wasn't too hard to think of how to show himself on the picture. His prankster heart kept begging him to make some funny pose of something, but seeing as this document was a formal form, and that it was going to be a major bit of paper in his shinobi life, he thought he had better make a good job the first time, otherwise he'd probably be forced to do it again. Besides, despite it all, he was a little camera shy as it was, although Harry would sooner stab a senbon needle into his eye than admit that to anyone.

The camera-nin was a short, stocky man with a balding head who was waiting near the roof for the new genin to have their photo's taken. Seeing Harry, the man said in a rather exasperated tone, "another one? I swear, there are more and more genin coming each year! Come along…"

"Hai!" Harry quickly made his way to the place where his photo would be taken. He knew that Photographers were normally patient people, but this was a camera-nin, and was thus a different matter entirely. He really didn't want to test his luck, especially when said camera-nin was in a rather bad mood as it was. Better to get it over and done with.

"You ready?" the camera-nin asked grumpily.

Harry grimaced slightly. "Aa, lets get it over with, please."

"Just what I like to hear," the camera-nin said, before disappearing behind the cover behind the camera. "Say 'cheese'."

"Cheese!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry sat opposite the Hokage as he examined the picture of his licence with a critical eye, almost making Harry want to shuffle in his seat waiting for Sarutobi to make a decision. Hesitantly, Harry said, "ano…so is it alright?" _please don't make me have to do that again! _He mentally begged. _I hate cameras, I hate camera-nin and if I gotta do it again I will fill your room with frogs old man!_

Sarutobi just shook his head, placing the newly completed licence on the table. "No, no, it's fine. Frankly I was rather surprised you didn't decide to paint your face or something."

"And have to have the photo done again?" Harry asked incredulously. "No way, ojii. I'd rather not be stuck with a homicidal camera-nin, thank you very much."

Sarutobi chuckled slightly and filed his licence away. "Well, everything's in order. Although I'm honestly surprised you made it on time, especially with that party of yours last night."

"Hey, I knew we were a little loud, but really, you can't've heard from here," Harry wined. Suddenly, he jabbed at him with a finger accusingly. "We're you spying with that funny crystal ball thingy again? Jeez, can't a guy have some privacy, jijii-hentai."

Sarutobi's eyebrow ticked slightly. "Alright, Harry-kun…"

"Oh yeah, before I forget," Harry said suddenly, pulling out the now slightly rumpled letter from his pocket, dropping it in front of Sarutobi, who raised an eyebrow. "This letter got dropped off at my place today. Dunno who it's from, but they got the wrong place. I mean, there's no guy named H. Potter at the Uchiha complex."

Sarutobi's eyebrows disappeared under his wide hat. "Can I have a look at that?"

Harry shrugged. "Why ask me? It's not like its mine, anyway. Go ahead."

The Hokage nodded for a second, before picking up the letter from the desk, looking at it critically, his eyes scanning the odd address. Harry wondered why he was so interested in the letter to be looking at it with such intensity like that. Harry scratched his head mentally. Was this Potter guy supposed to be important or something?

Sarutobi sighed with a slight frown. "He already sent it? I would have thought He'd have told me first…"

"Ara?" Harry blinked in confusion.

Sarutobi also blinked, his eyes switching to Harry for a moment, then back to the letter, then at Harry again. Finally, he put it into his pocket somewhere in the depths of his Hokage robes. "Its nothing, Harry-kun," Sarutobi said mildly. "Now, its some time before you have to meet up with your 'brothers'," he continued, leaning forwards slightly and looking Harry in the eye unnervingly. "If you don't have anywhere else to be, There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Ara?" Harry blinked again, rubbing the back of his head. "Ano…alright…"

Sarutobi smiled and stood up, motioning for Harry to follow. Confused as ever, Harry followed the old man out of the room and, ignoring the strange looks that some of the passing shinobi were giving them, followed him into another room, this one made more as a meeting room with comfortable looking chairs and a table in the centre. Sarutobi motioned for Harry to sit down and, giving the Hokage a pointed look, Harry did as told.

"Now, Harry-kun, I know this may seem an odd question, but answer truthfully as you can. Tell me, what do you know about your parents?"

"My…my parents?" Harry stuttered, thrown off track by the odd question. Harry had never had anyone ask him about his parents before. People had used to just accept that Fugaku was his uncle, and he was nephew of the Uchiha clan leader. Since the Massacre, no one ever asked either Uchiha about his family other than each other. To be asked this now threw him for a loop. "What's this got to do with-?"

"Please, Harry-kun," Sarutobi interrupted. "This is important."

Harry stared at him for a second, before turning to look out of the window for a moment and gazing down on the streets of Konohagakure, running a hand through his hair. "I…don't really know much about my parents other than what Fugaku-ojisama and Mitoko-obasama told me when I was little. From what I hear, Tousan and Kaasan were civilians or something. My obaasan moved from the Hidden countries years ago and married someone on the Outside and had Tousan but that was after. Tousan never became shinobi. That's all I know, apart from that they both died when I was one and Tousan asked that Fugaku-ojisama raise me in his will…" Harry fell silent for a moment, before he turned to face the Hokage once more, his face cold. "But what's my parents got to do with anything anyways?"

"Perhaps I should explain from here, Sarutobi-kun."

The effect was instantaneous. Harry spun towards the sound and was already halfway through the hand signs of a jutsu until Sarutobi placed a hand on his shoulder. Harry paused, surprised, before observing the new comer. There, sitting cross-legged on a sofa nearest to the door, long, silvery-coloured hair that reached somewhere round his mid-section, sat a man who could have passed for the Sandaime's grandfather. He wore robes similar to Sarutobi's, although without the cone-like hat, and also in a startling shade of blue that made his twinkling azure eyes behind half-moon glasses stand out even more brightly. He blinked at Harry's stance, then smiled softly. "Konnichiwa, Harry-kun. It has been a long time since I last saw you. You have grown."

Harry frowned at him for a moment, relaxing slowly and smiled back slightly before he caught himself. Who was this guy? For some reason, Harry just couldn't help but feel calmed and relaxed in his presence. There was just something about the man that made you want to trust him, like a much loved grandfather. He forced himself not to let his guard down however. Even if the man meant no harm, it made a poor genin that relaxed his guard completely with a stranger. Instead, Harry evaluated what he could see, and also the way in which this man spoke. His voice was soft, yet grandfatherly, but Harry also picked up an odd accent that definitely wasn't the usual Konoha one. In fact, he didn't look like he was shinobi at all in that get-up. Civilian then?

"Who are you, Otoko-san?"

"Oh yes, forgive me for not saying anything earlier," Sarutobi said with a smile. "This man here is an old friend of mine, Dumbledore Albus. Albus-kun, this is Uchiha Harry."

Harry blushed slightly; suddenly realising this must be the person that Sarutobi wanted him to meet. He bowed quickly to the newcomer. "Ah, Sumimasen. It's a pleasure, Dumbledore-san." Somehow, Dumbledore Albus just had an aura that demanded respect on one level or another.

Dumbledore bowed in return. "Indeed, Harry-kun."

"Sumanai, but what do you mean, 'it has been a long time since I last saw you'?"

Dumbledore looked at Sarutobi before he smiled and nodded. Sarutobi frowned slightly, before he nodded back. Of course, Harry didn't miss the by-play. "I was a friend of your parents, Harry-kun, and brought you to your uncle when they were killed."

Harry shot Sarutobi a surprised look, then turned to the man again. "You're from the Outside?" he looked at Sarutobi again. "Is that why you asked me what I knew about my parents?"

"Aa," Sarutobi said after a moment. "Albus-kun was the one who sent you the letter you received this morning. You see your grandmother married a man named Potter Harrison, who was the father of your father, Potter James. As the surname of a child is not determined through which clan was of the higher reputation, you name, as such would have been Potter Harry, had Fugaku not re-adopted you into the clan, so to speak. Although you would still have been named Uchiha Harry in the Hidden villages, as that is your official name. So you see, that letter was meant for you after all."

Harry gaped slightly, before turning to look at the letter that Sarutobi was now giving back to Harry. Shooting a look at the new man, Harry carefully ripped the envelope and pulled out one of the many sheets from inside.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of _WITCHCRAFT_ and _WIZARDRY

_Headmaster: Dumbledore Albus_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Uchiha-Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_McGonagall Minerva_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Harry gave the two men a penetrating look, before Harry said, "you have got to be kidding me. A magic school? What kind of fool do you take me for anyway? I know that I prank people occasionally, but there's no need to be sore about that prank I pulled on you last week. Its not even good retaliation, jijii."

"This isn't a prank, Harry-kun," Sarutobi said in exasperation.

"That's what you would have to say, Hokage," Harry said, waving the letter at him. "How else would you get me to believe you?"

"I'm afraid that Sarutobi-kun is correct Harry-kun."

Harry glanced at the older man and shook his head. "Now I know you're both nuts I'm-headmaster-of-a-magic-school-san."

Dumbledore just watched him with a slight twinkle of amusement in his eyes. He turned to Sarutobi. "Perhaps a little demonstration is in order?"

Sarutobi looked at him for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, alright, but I refuse to do any paperwork if you manage to break something."

Dumbledore chuckled slightly and stood up. Harry immediately backed up slightly, watching him with wiry eyes as the man reached into his robes and pulled out a-

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Harry growled, as in the older man's hand was a stick about a hand-span's length, or perhaps a little longer. "You guys have been reading way too many kid's books."

Dumbledore chuckled again. "Perhaps I have," he said lightly, before tapping the sofa he had been sitting on and immediately it turned into a large dog, that barked loudly for a moment, before he turned it back into a sofa once more. Dumbledore smiled. "Or perhaps I haven't"

Harry stared at it for a moment, eyes wide. He knew a lot about Genjutsu, even if that wasn't the area that Harry specifically specialised in, as his instructors at both the Uchiha complex and the academy had always thought it best that Harry knew of all kinds of tricks an enemy ninja might use. He had also been taught how to tell if a genjutsu was used. However, whatever that energy had been that had truly made the sofa turn into a dog and back had been no illusion.

"What was that?" Harry hissed. He was shocked and no Uchiha likes to be shocked.

"That, Harry-kun, is what people in the Outside call 'Magic'. Similar to the energy you call Chakra; Magic is an energy that inhabits people. However, there are only small amounts of people who have an innate ability to use their magical energies, who we call witches and wizards, and we have a separate community from non-magic people on the outside known as muggles."

"Similar to Shinobi, who can use Chakra, and civilians who can't, right?" Harry added, to try and get his head round the information. He was still rather shocked, but shinobi were nothing if not adaptable.

"That's right. Similar to how Shinobi wield chakra through hand signs, we Wizards use wands as a focus to control magic. Your parents, Lily and James, were both wizards and part of the wizarding world. Very good wizards in fact, that went to Hogwarts to study magic when they were young. It was…a great loss, when they died."

"…How did they die…?" Harry asked slowly. "All this is new to me," he added at the older men's questioning looks. "I didn't know much about my parents, and as such only knew they died, not how."

Dumbledore looked at him for a moment, before he started. "Alright then. You would hear it around the wizarding world anyway, but as it is better to receive the truth than a stretched fairytale, It might be prudent to learn about it yourself from me.

"As I have said, your parents, James and Lily Potter – English conversion of their names - both attended Hogwarts. During that time, a dark wizard known as Voldemort had risen to power. Voldemort wanted to make an all wizard community and as such, killed muggles and Muggleborns, such as your mother – both her parents were muggles. He brought together followers whom he called 'death eaters' to do this. Of course, anyone who stood in his way, he would kill. Your parents, of course, didn't want anything to do with his pureblood ethics and often fought against him. As such became targets. Because of this, they went into hiding, along with their young baby son – you – for protection against him. However, about ten years ago on Halloween he came to the village where your parents lived and killed them. He then turned his wand on you and tried to kill you too."

"Obviously he didn't manage it, though," Harry said dryly. "But if he managed to kill Kaasan and Tousan, both of whom are meant to have been really good 'Wizards' then how come I survived?"

Dumbledore hummed noncommittally. "Its something of a mystery in our world. You see the killing curse is meant to be unblockable, and as such is very much forbidden. There is no counter charm to stop it. If it is shot at you and hits, you die, simple as that. However, when he used it on you, it somehow rebounded off you and hit Voldemort in the backlash. All that happened to you was that you gained a lightning-bolt scar on your forehead. As for Voldemort, his body was destroyed. Because of this, in our world, you are seen as something of a hero."

Harry rubbed at his hitae-ate, just where his scar was and shivered slightly. So that was where he had got his odd scar. Obviously Fugaku had known about this, and because Harry had defeated a dark lord, and at one no less, he had thought Harry would posses more prodigal skills than he had. But that just couldn't be right, Harry thought savagely. He had no abilities that marked him out to be a prodigy in the way Itachi had been. There was also another thing that seemed wrong with the story.

"But I've never shown an ability to control this 'Magic' stuff," Harry said quietly, eyeing the stick that was still in Dumbledore's hand.

"Hasn't anything ever happened to you? Anything you can't quite explain?" Dumbledore asked quietly. Harry paused and turned to look at Dumbledore once more. Now that he thought about it…there had been a few instances, like when he had foiled up practising a jutsu and had hurt himself, yet the next day he had found himself fully healed. Then there was the time that Harry had suddenly found himself on the roof of the Uchiha mansion when one of his least-favourite instructors chased him for pranking him, although he had no idea how he managed to get up there. Then there was that time he had temporarily turned Itachi's hair blue…

"Got me there…" Harry muttered. He looked back at Dumbledore, who was smiling down at Harry. Harry looked at Sarutobi. "Hn, and I guess you knew about it all as well, huh, Jijii?"

Sarutobi nodded. "I did, but with circumstance as they were, I never got the opportunity to tell you about that part of your heritage."

Harry turned to look at Dumbledore. "And you're the headmaster of this school that teaches how to control this magic, right?"

"Indeed," Dumbledore said. "At Hogwarts, when a magical child is born, their names are written down as to who will join the magical school. As it was, both your parents went to Hogwarts and it was their wish that, when you turned eleven, in a few days from now, I believe, that you would attend Hogwarts as well, to learn how to control your own magical abilities.

"What do you say, Harry? Will you go to Hogwarts?"

It was…tempting to say the least. Magic seemed to be a different energy from Chakra and, as a shinobi; one was always looking for better jutsu for their advantage. If Harry learnt this Magic-jutsu, then he would have advantage over even powerful ninja if they weren't magical as well, but still…

"Gomen na, Dumbledore-san," Harry started slowly, folding the letter once more and sliding it back into the envelope. "But I can't go."

"Sorry?" Dumbledore said, surprised.

"I said I can't go to this school of yours. If what I guess is right, this Hogwarts place of yours is outside the Hidden villages, which would mean I'd have to leave here for a long period of time. I'm genin now, how will I do missions and such if I'm no where near here? Plus if I'm gone that long, they'll end up labelling me a missing-nin.

"But It's not just that. I've got Sasuke and Naruto to think about." Harry's eyes narrowed slightly and he clenched his fists. "I made a promise that I would never abandon my 'Brothers', whatever happens. So, I'm sorry, Dumbledore-san, but I won't go to your school." Harry turned from Dumbledore's stunned face to look at the Hokage. Harry bowed. "I'm going now, Hokage-ojii."

Harry turned and made his way towards the door, but paused, hand clutched lightly round the handle at the soft "Harry-kun, wait a moment, please."

Without turning round, Harry said, "Hai, Hokage-ojii?"

"I know that it might seem a little hard to go, but I think that you should take up this offer," the Hokage said calmly. Harry whipped round to stare at him. "You would be learning skills that would make even the Sanin green with envy. You don't have to worry about your genin duties for now. It can be recorded that you are going on a simple information-based d-rank or c-rank mission that will take all fall and winter to complete. As for Naruto and Sasuke, you need to understand that, while they do need you, that they must also get used to taking their lives into their own hands as well. When you get missions here, you might be forced to leave them for long periods of time. Your family is far from helpless, Harry-kun. Plus, Hogwarts has holiday times and during the summer months, you will return to Konoha.

"There's also the fact that learning magic will make you more than able to protect your family and friends."

Harry looked away again, feeling too confused and his head spinning a little from all the information he had been given. Harry sighed softly and let his head touch the door with a soft thump. Quietly, almost too quiet to hear, Harry said, "…give me some time, okay? It's a little too soon to give you my answer. Let me…let me talk to Sasuke and Naruto about it, see what they think, 'cause it effects them as much as it does me. If they're okay with it, I'll go, but if they say no, I wont."

He felt Sarutobi nod from behind him. "That's fine. You have some time to think it over. When you've made a decision, come back here and we'll talk. Just remember not to go to the induction as of yet. We'll sort out your genin team at a later date."

Harry nodded and pushed the door open, disappearing as quickly as he could from the tower, heading to the grove he usually went to think. If he was going to tell Naruto and Sasuke, he needed to think about the information he was given.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Is something wrong, Niisan?" Naruto asked, concern radiating in his voice.

Harry blinked in surprise at a slight touch on his arm and looked over at Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was about on his third bowl of ramen, but had stopped eating at the rate of 100 miles an hour to look over at Harry with concern written all over his face, chopstick halfway to his mouth. His eyes slid to the other side where Sasuke was also looking at him in concern, a hand withdrawing from where he had placed it on his arm to get his attention.

The three of them were sitting outside a restaurant close to the academy where he had picked up his brothers a couple of hours after the incident with the Hokage, Dumbledore and himself. Still confused and unsure what to do or how to bring it up, Harry had used a delaying tactic by taking them out for dinner. It wasn't Ichiraku's but it was still a good place. It served all sorts of food, such as favourites of the three, such as Ramen and, Harry's personal favourite, dango. However, even while it was his favourite food in front of him with his favourite people either side of him, Harry just couldn't get his mind off that conversation.

Harry forced a slight smile on his face. "I'm fine."

Sasuke frowned slightly. "Are you sure, Aniki? You've been kind of spacey all afternoon. It's…not like you."

"Yeah, I mean, you haven't ate your Dango yet and you like it as much as I love Raman! And you haven't even said one 'Sasuke-chan' yet!" Naruto added, only to have Sasuke swat him over the head, his eyebrow twitching.

Harry permitted himself a small smile at their actions and picked up the sick with tri-coloured dango on it, taking a bite. After a moment, he said. "I've… just got a lot on my mind."

"Want to talk about it?" Sasuke asked.

"Hardly matters if I do or don't, I guess," Harry mumbled absently. "I'll have to tell you anyway…"

"Ano sa, what do you mean, Niisan?" Naruto asked, his face easily reflecting his worry. He shared a glance with Sasuke, before looking back at Harry nervously. "What have you got to tell us…?"

"I…" Harry trailed off, before sighing. "It doesn't matter just yet. Its too public out here." He stuffed his dango into his mouth in an effort to try and show them nothing was wrong.

Sasuke looked at him sadly. "Aniki…"

Seeing the disappointed and slightly hurt look in Sasuke's eyes, Harry sighed and put down his half-eaten dango. Despite popular belief, Sasuke was a very shy and sensitive person behind his cold mask. And because of this he was easily upset, especially when it seemed one of his 'precious people' were angry or annoyed with him. And it looked like he was upsetting him now. Harry sighed again, avoiding his eyes.

"…Look…I promise, I'll tell you as soon as we get back to the complex, alright, Sasuke?" Harry said quietly. That seemed to make Sasuke perk up a little more and went back to eating again, although he spent the rest of the time that they were at the restaurant shooting Harry concerned looks. Harry resisted the urge to smack his head on the table.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"So, what'd you want to tell us, Aniki," Sasuke asked, slightly hesitantly.

It was late by the time the three of them had returned to the Uchiha complex and now Harry was pacing the floor in front of two rather nervous boys who sat on the low sofa, shuffling slightly and shooting each other concerned glances. It had already been ten minutes and Harry hadn't said a word since then. However, despite how uncomfortable Sasuke and Naruto were, it seemed that they had silently come to a decision between themselves to get the pebble rolling, so to speak.

Harry sighed and forced himself to sit on the low armchair across from them, running his fingers through his hair. _Well, It's now or never, I guess…_ "I spoke with the Hokage today," Harry started slowly. "About an odd letter that we got this morning addressed to a Mr H. Potter…" Harry continued on to explain how Harry had met Dumbledore Albus at the Hokage tower and explained that the letter was in fact addressed to him.

"So…in this Outside…your name would have been Potter Harry, because of James-Oji and Lily-oba, and because the clan name has nothing to do with the child's surname, but whatever the father's surname is, right?" Sasuke asked slowly as it looked as though he was mauling over the idea.

"Ano…" Naruto said, scratching his head, "what's this 'outside' thing all about then?"

"Honestly, Naruto, what do you do in those lessons – sleep?" Sasuke asked in exasperation. "Even Shikamaru was paying attention to that lesson!"

"The 'Hidden countries' are only a small part of the world," Harry explained, trying to squash another tussle before it started, absently remembering his own classes about shinobi history. "But thousends of years ago after a Great War, the Hidden countries split from the rest of the world and was hidden under extremely strong genjutsu. Occasionally, someone from the Hidden countries decides to leave past the barrier, usually if something bad happened to them on the continent, or just because they no longer want to be shinobi. It's rare, but not unheard of. Sometimes, people are sent through the barrier to investigate new technology and designs. How else do you think you get to what your favourite Anime?" Harry added, ruffling Naruto's hair. He sobered slightly. "Not very many people on the Outside know about the hidden continent, though, so that's why we don't get many visitors from the outside here. Obviously though, Obaasan must have told Tousan about it at on point. I guess Tousan must have mentioned it to Dumbledore-san… Anyway…"

Harry continued with his story, about how Dumbledore had told him all about magic and the history behind his parents, finally coming to the part where Dumbledore asked him to attend Hogwarts to learn about his own magical abilities.

"So…are you going to go to this…Hogwarts place, Aniki…?" Sasuke asked hesitantly.

Harry sighed, running both his hands through his hair before resting his head in his palms. "I don't know what to do about it, actually. I mean, it would be cool to learn jutsu that only I could use and all, but…" Harry looked up and gave the two boys he had come to think of as brothers a slightly despairing look. "I don't want to just up and leave when I've got you two to think about as well. I don't want to break my promise to you and I don't want to go if it means abandoning you or making you miserable or something."

Sasuke looked at him for a moment then looked at Naruto. Finally he sighed and walked up to Harry. He looked at him hard for a moment with his ebony eyes, before he leaned down to him and-

Smacked him hard across the head with his fist.

"Ow! What the hell was that for, Sasu-?" Harry started, but cut of when both Sasuke and Naruto hugged him tightly. "S-Sasuke…? N-Naruto?"

"You're an idiot sometimes, aren't you?" Sasuke said quietly, although the harshness of his words were softened by the fact he had his arms wrapped round him and was currently hugging him tightly. "Getting all worked up about this and stuff…"

"But Sasuke, I…"

"I know you get really worried about us and we appreciate it, we really do, but I don't want to make you miss your chance to actually learn something like that…magic? …Because you could get really strong if you master that and chakra, right?" Sasuke looked up at him with a slightly pained grin. "I know that I'd miss you and everything, but If it can help you if we ever meet…you-know-who again and helps you beat him and be standing at the end of it, then I'm all for it!"

Harry felt Naruto frown at the you-know-who comment. Harry had told Naruto about Itachi, although rather generally, just in case Itachi ever came back to make good on his promise so Naruto'd be aware. Thankfully, this seemed to have created an even closer bond between Sasuke and Naruto, even if Naruto always frowned and growled when He was mentioned. "Well, if he's trying to hurt my 'Oniisan' then obviously I don't like him!" Naruto had told them once.

Sasuke continued. "And, you said so yourself that you have holidays and stuff where you can come home again. It'll be just like when Onii- when one of the clan went on a long mission, right?"

"You…want me to go ton Hogwarts…?" Harry breathed.

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly "It'll be so cool if you can make stuff float and make instant Ramen without the three-minute wait! And-!"

"You'll keep in touch, though…won't you?" Sasuke asked, interrupting Naruto's rambling. "I mean, you'll send us letters and photos and come visit us in the holidays you get, right?"

"Look, are you sure you want me to go?" Harry insisted. "You're not just saying that to-"

Sasuke growled and whacked him upside the head. "Aniki, stop being overprotective and go learn some cool new Jutsu to show us!" He glared at Harry, "Or do I have to hit you again, Baka Aniki."

Harry laughed and pulled them into a big hug. "I guess even I need someone to whack some sense into me sometimes, not just you guys!"

"A-NI-KIIIIII!"

"NIISAAAAAN!"

And the young genin vanished under two smaller bodies as they launched themselves at a hysterically laughing Harry.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Alright, Hokage-ojii, Dumbledore-san, I'll go to this Hogwarts place," Harry announced as soon as he spotted the two old men in the Hokage's office. Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork in surprise, the pipe he always seemed to have with him almost dropping from his mouth. Dumbledore looked over to him with twinkling blue eyes. "But," he added, seeing the twinkle instantly dim slightly and the Hokage pick himself up with a slightly knowing look on his face, "With two conditions."

Dumbledore observed him for a second, before nodding understandingly. "And they are?"

"After every term at Hogwarts, I'll come back here to Konoha and continue my shinobi training," Harry said, "and once I finish training at Hogwarts, I'll come back here again. I'm Shinobi, Dumbledore-san, and will remain a shinobi of Konohagakure."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "That can be arranged for you, Potter-san-"

"Uchiha-san, sir, if you want to call me by my surname," Harry corrected. Dumbledore nodded.

"And the second condition?"

"Is that, if possible and convenient with them, could Sasuke and Naruto spend a little time with me during school breaks, like during winter solstice or something." Harry added.

Dumbledore looked slightly surprised. "An unusual request. Usually muggles are not allowed into Hogwarts, but in this case…" he smiled. "I'll see what I can do. Although it might be a littler difficult, I think I might be able to allow this acceptation, considering the distance any poor bird might have to fly between here and Hogwarts."

Sarutobi chuckled slightly. "Any other conditions, Harry-kun?"

"None that I can think of just now," Harry said, turning to Dumbledore again. "Other than that, I'll go learn this magic stuff of yours."

"Excellent, Pot-I mean, Uchiha-san. Now, I must return to Hogwarts to mark down your acceptation. I'm afraid that, despite all the verity of things one can do with magic, Hogwarts cannot run itself. However, I'll leave a Portkey here to transport you to Diagon Alley in a few days time so you can buy the necessary equipment."

Harry snorted with laughter at the name. "Is there a 'Horizont Alley' and a 'Vertic Alley' as well?" Harry asked innocently.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at that. "Of course, I'll assign a guide for you while you are there, and a Portkey will also be kept in Sarutobi's safe keeping until September 1st, that will transport you to the train to take you to Hogwarts." Dumbledore smiled and gave him a small bow. "I'm sure that you will enjoy your time at Hogwarts. See you in September." And with a sharp 'pop' the man just vanished.

Sarutobi sighed and shook his head mournfully. "I swear, no one uses the door anymore. Is using a door too much to ask?"

Harry, on the other hand, was slightly more in awe. "I have SO got to learn that!"

**TBC**

**Japanese Translation**

_Aa – yeah_

_Hai-yes_

_Ano-um_

_-Kun – honorific between male students that promotes familiarity or affection._

_-Chan – honorific meaning little or dear_

_Niisan – big brother_

_Aniki – another way to say big brother_

_Baka – idiot_

_Dango – dumplings (a type of food)_

_Itoko – cousin_

_Ojisama – honourable uncle_

_Obasama – honourable aunt_

_Obaasan – grandma_

_Kaasan – mom_

_Tousan – dad_

_Ojii/Jijii – gramps_

_Oji – uncle – don't get mixed up with Ojii._

_Oba – aunt – not to be mixed up with Obaa_

_-San – honorific meaning Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms etc_

_Ohayo – good morning_

_Sumanai/ Sumimasen – excuse me_

_Gomen na/ Gomennasai I'm sorry/ I'm very sorry_

_Henge – transform_

_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – shadow clone technique_

**Chosha's notes**

Surprisingly, this chapter was pretty hard for me. You would have thought it would be the fight scenes, but…oh well.

Just so you know, Harry is almost 11 (in a few days according to my fic), Sasuke and Naruto are 9 or almost 9, just so you know. Oh, and about the Genin team – Harry will get place in a team after first year, but whose the sensei? …I'm not going to tell you! You'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, please review, if you would. Arigato!

**Next episode preview:**

Harry: Woah! So this is the wizarding world, huh? So cool! I hope that Sasuke and Naruto can come see this stuff! Wait…who are you? You're my guide? Gah! Next episode: chapter four: Journey to a New World. Look forward to it!

But, till next time, Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	5. Chapter 4: Journey to a New World

**Chosha's notes**

Hey there! Welcome back to Uchiha Potter. Uwaaa! I can't believe I've already had over 100 reviews! Thank you so, so much! I hope I gave any answers to questions you might have had all right, but if you are confused, make sure to tell me and I'll try to clear it up.

I did get asked about Harry's power levels, so I thought I'd share it with you. At the moment, Harry's chakra levels are the same, perhaps a little higher, as Cannon Sasuke's, pre chunin exams – i.e., before he gets the cursed mark. Speed and strength wise, he's about the same as Neji and magic wise he should be a little above average for his age. Towards the end of the story, his chakra levels should be higher than Kakashi, but lower than Naruto's. Speed and physical strength wise he should be close to Itachi. Magic levels should be around Voldemort and Dumbledore's level.

I have had people suggest parings already, but I would like to ask if people want shonen ai (male x male) parings. I normally don't write shonen ai parings, but I don't have anything against it, either, so I'll try it if you want me to. Of course, it won't be till he's about fourteen, but so far, I have had shonen ai suggestions of: Harry x Neji, Harry x Naruto and/or Naruto x Sasuke.

I'm not sure about any heterosexual parings, but if you can make suggestions, I'd appreciate it. If you don't like shonen ai, please tell me, as I don't want to scare off people from the story. Arigato.

**Important! **One last thing. From here on in, whenever anyone uses Japanese language in England, It will be written in Italics. Similarly, if someone is speaking English in Konoha, the same will apply. If the odd Japanese word is used in English speak, that word will also be in Italics as well.

Now, after those mass-off notes, here's the legal stuff…again…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either Harry Potter or Naruto. This story is fanfiction only and is not meant to be infringement on any copyrights of the authors or creators.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Harry discovered his other heritage as a wizard and, after giving several conditions, agrees to go to Hogwarts to learn magic to add to his jutsu skills.

**Chapter Four:**

**Journey to a New World**

"You've got your shuriken, don't you?"

"Tucked away and ready to go."

"And your kunai?"

"Check."

"How about those explosive tags?"

He could almost feel his eyebrow twitching. "Hai, hai."

"Do you want my Fuuma Shuriken too-?"

"For crying out loud, Sasuke! What are you, my mother or something? Stop being such a worrywart. Jeez!"

The few days since he had accepted the invitation to join Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – and by all official accounts, his first mission - seemed to have flown by faster than any that Harry had ever remembered previously. He would have thought the speed in which it had gone was like magic, except for the fact that that sounded not only an awful cliché, but now sounded like a bad pun in his own ears now he knew about his other heritage as Potter Lily and James' son. But however you put it, the day Harry was to meet his guide to this 'Diagon ally' place was soon snapping on his heels. Now he, Naruto and Sasuke were standing in the middle of the Hokage's office while they grilled him with questions. Said Shinobi leader was watching in amusement as Harry was treated like he was the younger brother.

Harry sighed. Despite Sasuke and Naruto being quite happy to allow Harry to be able to learn what they had started calling 'Mahojutsu' (especially if it would help him in any life-or-death situations) both of them had become exceptionally clingy. In fact, it was as if Harry had suddenly gained two new shadows. Oh, sure, it had been cute at first, but now it was getting ridiculous!

"But Niisaaaaaaan…" Naruto wined. "We won't get to see you in ages and ages and ages and-"

"I think he gets the point, Naruto," Sasuke interrupted, although he was still blushing slightly from Harry's reprimand.

"We just want to make sure you're gonna be alright and everything!" Naruto finished, pouting up at Harry, his eyes wide and puppy-like. If it weren't for the fact that he knew the two boys would probably have hog-tied him and forced him to go and stop being an idiot, Harry would have just told Dumbledore to take a hike and would have stayed in Konoha, missing opportunity or not. However, he would rather not have to argue with his favourite brother's about the situation when they were so excited that Harry would be learning magic.

Either way, he rolled his eyes. "I'm just getting supplies for school, Naru-chan," he said in mock-exasperation. "You would have thought I was going into war against Iwagakure or something!" Harry sighed, shaking his head, before glancing back at them. "Hey… thanks for worrying…But really, Daijobu." He glanced at the clock on the wall and grinned. "Seriously though, if you carry on worrying like this, I'm never gonna get to this _Diagonally_ at all!" he turned to glare at the Hokage, who coughed discreetly, but Harry was positive it was hiding a chuckle. "And you can shut it too, Jijii!"

"Of course, of course," Sarutobi answered meekly. "However, the place is called '_Diagon alley'_, Harry-kun," he added seriously, although his lips kept twitching, as if threatening to turn into a grin at any moment.

"Yeah, well, that's what I said. But _Diagonally_, _Horizontally_ or _Vertically_, it doesn't change the fact I still have no clue what this _Portkey_ effort is anyways," Harry said with a shrug. Naruto sniggered while Sasuke sighed and put his head in his hand in defeat.

"Anyway, Harry-kun," Sarutobi said, with a slight smile at their antics, "Albus-kun had left me with this _Portkey_ that's meant to take you to London today." Carefully he opened one of his desk draws and pulled out what looked like a plain, ordinary scroll. Harry raised an eyebrow, but before he could voice the fact he was starting to think the Hokage was starting to go senile, Sarutobi continued. "He also left a message with instructions on how to use it." He quickly threw both to Harry, who caught them automatically.

"But…it just looks like some dumb old scroll, Jijii," Naruto interjected.

"Maybe there's a genjutsu on it so it just looks like a scroll," Sasuke suggested, causing Harry shoot the Portkey sharp look. Sasuke turned back to Harry, who was now eyeing the scroll critically. "So, Aniki, what's Kocho-san got to say?"

"Ano…" Harry pulled out the rolled up note awkwardly with one hand and scanned the page. It was on the same parchment his acceptance letter was written on, but was written in neat katakana rather than English script. Both Naruto and Sasuke leaned over to read it too, however, Harry decided to save them the trouble and read it out loud:

"_Uchiha Harry-san,_

_This Scroll is actually a Portkey, a type of travel device in the wizarding world. At precisely two o'clock, the Portkey will activate and will teleport whoever is touching it at the time to a secluded area in London, so as not to attract attention to you from the local muggles. This means you need to be in contact with the scroll for it to work. Once at your destination, the guide that I have assigned you will take you to Diagon Alley so you can buy your School supplies. You should be able to spot him easily enough. He is also Bilingual, so if you have any problems, just ask. Have a pleasant trip and I'll see you at Hogwarts in September._

_Dumbledore Albus"_

"Eeeeeeh?" all three of them blurted out.

"That sounds so weird!" Naruto exclaimed. "Who heard of a scroll taking you anywhere anyways!"

"Its almost time, Harry-kun," Sarutobi interrupted before Naruto could start a full-blown rant. "Have you got everything you need?"

Harry sighed mournfully. "Must we go through this again? I swear, no one trusts me anymore… hey, no need with those looks," Harry mumbled when Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "But you did deserve all you got that time." The Hokage glared. "Jeez, talk about keeping a grudge." He complained to no one in particular.

Sasuke sighed. "What did you do this time, Aniki?"

"Nothing!" Sasuke gave him a look of disbelief. Harry humphed and crossed his arms, tossing his head to one side. His eyes flickered to them slightly, before turning away once more. He could feel cheeks tinge a light shade of pink. "…I hid his seeing globe in that frog pond and I also found and…rearranged some of his 'books'." Harry put a hand to his forehead in a mock faint, choking out a fake sob. "To think our own Hokage's a closet-perv-"

"I think that's enough, Harry-kun," the Hokage cut him off with a growl, his cheeks turning red. "The _Portkey_'ll activate in any minute."

"Hai, hai," Harry snickered. He turned back to his 'brother's'. "Alright then, you guys make sure you behave yourselves while I'm gone…." He trailed off. Something was a bit odd about this picture. His eyes widened and he shot his brothers a sharp look as he realised just what it was that was wrong. "Hang on, don't you have academy today?"

"Oops!"

"Busted."

Harry slapped his forehead with one hand in defeat. "Morons…"

"Never mind that, make sure you don't do something stupid, Aniki," Sasuke said with a frown, although his dark eyes flashed with worry. "Don't get lost and –"

"Bring back some cool stuff for us too!" Naruto finished excitedly.

"I'll think about it if you get your butts back to school," Harry growled, although his eyes were twinkling.

Naruto saluted, making Sasuke do the same with his free hand. "Hai!"

Sasuke glared, his eyebrow twitching dangerously before snatching his hand back and smacking the blond on the head with his fist.

"Itaiiiiiii!"

Harry shook his head in fond exasperation, before turning back to the Hokage, who was now leaning back in his chair with what looked like a semi-smug look on his face. Harry waved the scroll in his hand. "Hey, Ojiisan, how's this thing gonna transport me any-"

Suddenly, there was a sharp tug at his naval, as if someone had managed to hook him on the end of a fishing line and, before Harry even had the chance to yell he was gone.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was early morning in the city of London and the sun was shinning brightly over the bustling streets. As busy and fast paced as everything usually was, at this time of day, it was still quite tranquil for first thing in the morning – well, in comparison to the usual, anyway. People were still dashing this way and that, especially as it was summer holidays, so early rising children also scampered along, clinging to parents as they begged to go in some shop or another.

They had absolutely no idea about the 'other world' that was situated alongside it. And that 'other world' liked to keep it that way. Thankfully, even if they didn't know much about 'Muggle' technology, the wizards weren't stupid and had warded enough places for Portkeys to appear without setting everyone off at a panic. Which was a good thing too, considering.

This normality below was broken when about fifty-foot in the air appeared a rather windswept Uchiha Harry, who was gaping, when the Scroll-Portkey he had been holding fell out of his grip. To his horror, it continued to fall. With a cry of outrage, horror and indignation, so did Harry. He barely had time to think, as he flipped himself mid-air and folded into a landing on his feet like a cat.

The effect was slightly ruined when he realised he hadn't landed on something very stable, but on a bin lid lying haphazardly on an empty metal trashcan.

"_Kuso_!"

CRASH!

Harry, bin-lid and all, crashed to the floor, leaving Harry swirly-eyed and tangled in an empty bin and a bin lid that somehow managed to land on top of him.

Funnily enough, everyone else in the area had no idea what just happened and continued on his or her way.

"_Itaiiiiiii…_" Harry groaned, pulling himself to a sitting potion and rubbing his poor bruised and abused back. "_Just my dumb luck…"_ He shot a dirty look towards the scroll port-key, now lying quite innocently next to him, before glaring up at the sky. _"Oi, a bit of warning next time, Ojii!"_ Harry yelled at the empty space above him, knowing just how stupid he must look, but he chose to ignore that fact. The young genin pulled himself to his feet, dusting himself off with his hands, all the time grumbling under his breath. _"'Have a pleasant trip' my ass! The next time I see that old man,"_ he continued on his barely audible rant, _"we are going to have some serious words – hello, hold the phone-!"_

Well, if Harry hadn't already been convinced of the existence of magic after seeing Dumbledore turn the Hokage's sofa into a real-live dog, he definitely would have believed that Magic existed after the surroundings that met his eyes actually registered. He was no longer standing in the Hokage tower. Hell, it looked as though Harry wasn't even in the village any more. It looked as though the Portkey had dumped Harry (rather unceremoniously) in a narrow, dead-ended ally, empty except for himself and a couple of empty bins similar to the one he just landed on and a large blue dumpster that was full of rubbish, which he had, thankfully, missed in his fifty foot drop.

"_Uwaaa, it really did work!"_ Harry grinned, feeling rather impressed despite himself.

Before him was the entrance of the ally. Cautiously, Harry moved towards it and peered out. What he saw almost took his breath away. He had never seen anything like it before!

The alley's entrance led out onto what looked like a street near the outskirts of a town of some kind, except the town was even larger than any Harry had ever heard of back at the Hidden continent. It must have been five – no ten times larger than Konohagakure! Buildings that reached up to the sky stretched far above him, rivalling the height of the Hokage tower, while down on the streets bellow walked what must have been hundreds of people – men, women, boys, girls – hell even the occasional dog! – strode this way and that, hurrying to kami only knows where. Harry shuddered at the thought of just how dangerous is could be to be caught in the middle of that if someone caused panic among them. However, he pushed that thought to the back of his head under 'potentially dangerous' in order to take interest in the strange, large metal monstrosities that also somehow had a sleek, streamlined appearance in some cases shot passed faster than any animal down the road.

"_So that's a car,"_ Harry muttered with an appreciative grin. _"Sugoi! Shame they never brought them to the continent." _He screwed up his nose at the particularly nasty smell one machine gave off. _"Then again…"_

Shaking his head, he pushed the cars out of his mind in favour of looking for this so-called guide that Dumbledore had promised. _"He said in that note he left with Hokage-ojii that I wouldn't miss him, but…"_ His eyes scanned over the crowds of people walking this way and that. They seemed ordinary enough, although, looking at them, he had to tug slightly at his blue, wide-necked T-shirt baring the Uchiha symbol and his blue shorts, along with his grey arm and leg-straps, checking them in comparison to these civilians. Although he couldn't say they exactly blended in completely, they didn't stand out as much as he had feared. Seeing some of the garments that people were wearing, he guessed it could be passed off as some sort of weird teen fashion or something. But even with some of the slightly odd fashions, there was no one around that Harry could immediately pinpoint as a guide to the wizarding world.

Well, unless you count that man who was even shorter than Naruto was and looked more like a cross between Yoda from Star Wars and a beardless dwarf that was making his way towards him, while barely managing to avoid getting squashed by some of the people passing by, who kept giving the guy odd glances. No wonder, considering the odd assortment of horribly clashing civilian garments.

"_Nan da?"_ Harry blurted out, before wincing slightly to himself. He had sooooo been spending too much time around Naruto – he was starting to pick up some of his bad habits.

The dwarf man finally seemed to have spotted Harry, who was staring at them man rather incredulously, and gave an excited quark, hurrying over even faster, stopping just inside the alley before him.

"_Potter Harry, isn't it?"_ the man asked in horribly accented Japanese, in a rather squeaky voice that was also slightly breathless. From the elated look on his face, Harry wasn't sure if it was because he was out of breath or because he was excited to see him – although goodness only knew why. At Harry's cautious nod, the man smiled up at him and caught his hand, shaking it quickly. _"Flitwick Filius-sensei. I'm the Charms teacher at _Hogwarts_. Dumbledore Albus-sensei sent me to be your guide to_ Diagon alley_."_

Hearing this, Harry relaxed slightly, letting out a sigh. So he had been right – this guy was his guide. _"Hajimemashite, Flitwick-sensei"_

"_Well, there is much to do today, so if you could follow me and I'll take you to our destination."_ Flitwick said and indicated Harry to follow. Hesitating for a moment, he followed Flitwick through the busy crowds, doing his best to keep his eyes locked onto the back of the guy's head. He knew that if he lost sight of him then he'd be stranded. It also didn't help that Harry only knew very limited English, seeing as very few people ever moved out of the hidden countries. In fact, the only person who had left in the last 100 years was Uchiha Tsubame herself.

Which also meant a slight problem for himself. He quickened his pace slightly to walk alongside the small professor.

_"Ano, Flitwick-sensei…" _

_"What's wrong, Potter-kun?"_

Harry grimaced at the name. _"Please, Sensei, my name has been Uchiha since I was one."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Uchiha is my surname, and has been since I was one, seeing as I was re-adopted back into that part of my family when my parents died, so my surname isn't Potter anymore. Although I guess Uchiha-Potter'd be alight. I'd appreciate it if you would use one of those names, sir, if you would." _It sounded odd to his own ears to speak so politely, but he really didn't think it was a good idea to have one of his teachers having a grudge against him for a bad first impression.

(AN: coughsnapecough)

"_Ah…Of course, Uchiha-kun. Albus mentioned something like that I believe,"_ Flitwick corrected himself with a slightly apologetic smile. _"What is it?"_

"_Well, I've been thinking. Back Home, we don't speak in English much, so I only know the basics, really, and the written language seems little more than scribbles most of the time. It's so different from the katakana and kanji we're used to. How am I meant to get my supplies for _Hogwarts_ if I don't really know the written language very well?"_

"_Not to worry, not to worry, Uchiha-kun. That's why Albus asked me to be your guide, since I'm bilingual, so if you have any problems, just ask me and I'll translate. Of course, you may have to have a crash-course in English before you go to _Hogwarts_, but If your still struggling, then I can always charm a translator for you – ah, here we are!"_

Harry almost fell over the small professor as he had come to a sudden and rather abrupt halt in front of a rather grubby looking pub with dusty windows and a sign hanging above it that looked like it was only hanging on by the skin of its teeth. Harry squinted his eyes slightly and tried to read it with his limited English skills. "The…Le…Leaky…."

"The Leaky Cauldron," Flitwick informed him, making Harry pout and tilt his head away with a frown of annoyance to cover a blush forming on his pale cheeks. _"It's a famous place. You wouldn't have thought it though, eh?" _he chuckled as he indicated the people walking passed. Intrigued, Harry glanced round as well. Indeed, if Harry didn't know any better, he would have thought that the people didn't actually see the pub at all. Their eyes slid from the large bookshop on the one side, to the record shop on the other side. Observing them for a moment, Harry's eyes widened in realisation.

"_Ah…a magic-based Genjutsu…"_ Harry muttered, nodding to himself.

"_Hm?"_ piped up the tiny Professor.

Harry chuckled, covering up his mistake. _"Eh heh…its nothing Flitwick-Sensei. Daijobu."_

"_Alright, come on then Uchiha-kun!" _

"_O-oi! Matte!"_ before Harry could really say anything, Flitwick had already got behind him and was pushing and steering him into the pub.

"_Just a warning, Uchiha-kun,"_ Flitwick said. _"You do know that you and that scar of yours are rather famous here, don't you, especially since it was you defeated you-know-who ten years ago, didn't you?"_

"_Who?"_ Harry asked in confusion, before what he said sunk in. _"What – Wait a minute - famous?!"_

"_Oh yes,"_ Flitwick squeaked as-matter-of-factly. _"So Albus asked me to warn you that you may want to hide that scar of your in public in the wizarding world – unless you want to be swarmed by adoring fans, of course,"_ he chuckled, pushing open the pub door and guiding him inside. _"But from what Albus has said, I think you'd rather be discrete, eh?"_

Harry immediately straightened his Hitae-ate, grimacing. It was bad enough having those rabid fan-girls back home – he didn't need the entire wizarding world stalking him as well!

Harry stepped into a rather dark and grungy-looking pub, lit by the odd candle. He paused slightly, looking around with interest at his very first visit to a Wizarding building. Somehow, though…he wasn't quite impressed. For a place that was illegibly famous, it was rather dark, shabby and almost completely empty but for a few old women chatting softly in one corner sipping on sherry. (The one puffing on a long pipe briefly made him chuckle – it reminded him quite strongly of the Hokage and his beloved pipe). At the bar sat a man in a large top-hat that looked in danger of dropping off from being too top-heavy, chatting to an old publican who's balding head reminded him of some sort of walnut. The chatter stopped slightly as Harry and Flitwick entered, but started up once more as soon as they satisfied their curiosity. The publican, however, smiled towards then.

"Well, Hello, Professor!" he said pleasantly in English, which Harry followed the best he could, listening hard. "Taking some more new students to get their Hogwarts things, I suppose?"

"Yes, just taking Mr Uchiha here." Squeaked Flitwick in kind. "I might drop in for a Cherry syrup and soda later though." He turned back to Harry, _"follow me, Uchiha-kun – the entrance to the alley is this way."_

_"Hai."_

Harry followed the tiny professor out the back of the pub and into a sort of dead-ended back-alley, empty but for a couple of bins. Just as Harry was about to question the dwarf's sanity, the man pulled out a long twig, that Harry immediately recognised as the Same stick that Dumbledore had been carrying – a wand, he concluded, as Flitwick began tapping a sequence of bricks (although he struggled part way through and had to stand on his tip-toes to finish it.)

For a moment, nothing happened. Harry frowned. Annoyed, he was about to open his mouth to express his frustration when he felt something. Slowly, wide-eyed, he turned back to look at the wall once more. The last brick the wand had touched quivered for a moment, wriggling, when it suddenly started to move. It folded outwards, followed by another, and another. Finally, all the bricks were re-arranging themselves into a high arch that was five times taller than Harry, beyond which, a cobbled street that twisted its way out of sight.

"_Welcome_," Flitwick said with a smile, "_to_ Diagon Alley."

Harry promptly picked his jaw up from the floor. Even if he wasn't like many of the Uchihas when they were alive, that didn't mean that he liked looking like a goldfish. It was just so…un-Uchiha! Instead he grinned down at the professor. _"Sugoi! Can you make instant Ramen, or conjure up Dango too?"_

Flitwick laughed good-naturedly.

It wasn't long after that Flitwick, with Harry walking close behind, began to make their way down the cobbled path. It was all so new, so amazing; he couldn't help but try to look at everything at once. There were places selling cauldrons, owls, brooms, robes, telescopes, various animal body parts, spell books, quills, parchment, and many other things that Harry had never laid eyes on before, even at the academy. Although it wasn't as busy as Muggle London – to which Harry was thankful - there were still plenty of people milling about their own business. Harry watched with some interest as a bunch of wizard children, only a little younger than Sasuke and Naruto stared into the window of a shop with a broom in the window. "Wow! The Nimbus Two-thousand! It's the fastest one yet!" he heard one announce excitedly in English.

"_So, where are we headed first, Flitwick-sensei?"_ Harry asked the smaller man as they continued passed the shop.

Flitwick pointed towards a large building that looked like it was made from pure marble at the centre of Diagon Alley that towered up above the other shops. _"That, Uchiha-kun, is our first destination -_ Gringotts Bank_."_

"_Ara?"_ Harry asked in confusion, _"But I already have money. See?"_ he dug out a bundle of notes from his pocket from the money he had set aside from the welfare checks he was given.

"_Oh, but we don't use paper money, I'm afraid,"_ Flitwick told him. _"See, we have our own currency."_

Harry frowned slightly. _"Soooo, we're changing my money for wizarding money?" _he stabbed a guess.

"_Oh, heaven's no. Didn't you think your parents wouldn't have left money for you?"_ Flitwick said. _"Albus gave me the key to your vault, so that you'll be able to draw out money. I'll give it to you once I've shown you how everything works."_

"_They left me money?"_ Harry blinked in confusion. That wasn't something Dumbledore had mentioned before. Then again, Harry hadn't thought about it either. He slapped his forehead for his stupidity. Stuffing his paper money back into his pocket, Harry hurried after Flitwick to the large white building. Colossal burnished bronze doors towered over them, and standing next to them, wearing a tiny uniform of red and gold was-

"_What the hell is that thing?"_ Harry choked out, staring. He'd never seen anything like it before. About the same height as Flitwick, the creature had a swarthy, cleaver face, a pointed beard and very long fingers and feet.

"_Hm? Oh, that's a goblin,"_ Flitwick piped. _"They run _Gringotts_."_

"_A bank run by goblins,"_ Harry muttered, shaking his head with a frown as he followed Flitwick passed the Goblin, who bowed them inside. "_Now I've seen everything…"_ suddenly he grinned, impishly. _"Naruto and Sasuke'll just freak when I tell them!"_

Passing the Golden doors, they found themselves in a small hall, facing a pair of silver doors that were only slightly smaller than the front doors, baring the inscription:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"_Wow, they're about as friendly as some of the ANBU back home,"_ Harry muttered under his breath, _"and about as heart-warming as a kunai at your throat,"_ he added with a wiry grin.

"_Well, its one of the reasons that this place is so safe,"_ Flitwick said. _"No one robs_ Gringotts._ It's guarded by more than just enchantments and spells. It consists of mazes underground, traps. You'd probably die of hunger before you got out with anything you stole, even if you managed to get something. You don't mess with Goblins, Uchiha-kun, especially when it comes to gold."_

Harry let out a long, low whistle, feeling rather impressed.

As Harry and the tiny professor walked through the silver doors, they found themselves in a vast marble hall. Harry was sure that, if you could move a whole house, you'd be able to put the entire Uchiha estate inside several (hundred) times. About a hundred goblins sat on high stools behind a counter larger than Harry was, scribing in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining large gems through eyeglasses, holding them in cleaver hands. Around the hall were more doors than Harry could count in one sitting, and even more goblins showing the odd person through them. Flitwick glanced around and pointed to the free goblin near the middle. As they approached, it looked down at them with narrow eyes.

"Morning," Flitwick piped to the free goblin pleasantly. "We've come to take some money from Mr Harry Potter's safe."

Harry couldn't help but sigh slightly at the 'Potter', but decided not to make a fuss just yet. He was sure he could change the name his safe was under at a later date – when he wasn't busy gathering supplies.

"You have his key, sir?" the goblin asked in a nasally voice.

Flitwick fished in his pocket for a moment, before holding up a tiny golden key. The goblin leaned over the side of the desk and eyed it closely for a moment, before giving a curt nod. "That seems to be in order. I'll have someone take you to his vault. Griphook!"

Another goblin walked over seemingly from out of nowhere. After a moment or two, in which the goblins conversed of where they needed to go, the goblin Griphook turned to the duo. With a low bow, he said, "Follow me sirs."

Griphook lead them towards one of the many doors and held it open for them. Harry had to blink several times to get used to the suddenly dim lighting. They had been lead into a dark, stone passageway, lit with several flaming torches. It sloped downwards steeply and ended in what looked like a small railway line, which swerved around a corner into darkness. Griphook gave a short, loud whistle and, out of nowhere, a cart, sort of like the ones you'd see in an old coalmine, hurtled to a stop right in front of them.

"In we go, sirs," Griphook told them as he climbed in. Harry climbed in after him, soon followed by Flitwick. He looked, in Harry's opinion, rather apprehensive. When they were all comfortable- or as comfortable as they could be, all three of them squashed together inside the cart - they sped off into a maze of tunnels.

Harry attempted to remember right, right, left, middle, left – but it was going so fast, it was impossible. He soon gave up trying to read the rout as a bad job. Briefly, he wondered if he had the Sharingan whether it would have been easier, but soon decided there was no point thinking about it. Instead, he decided to enjoy the roller coaster to his giddy hearts content. He had never in his life travelled so fast and he was having the time of his life.

All too soon, the ride ended – for Harry at least. Flitwick, on the other hand, looked as though he couldn't wait to get his feet on solid ground again.

"_Oh hell yeah! That was so cool!"_ Harry laughed as he bounced out of the car. He turned to Flitwick with sparkling eyes. _"Can we do it again?"_

Flitwick just looked like he wanted to throw up.

Griphook waited patiently for Flitwick to recover, before leading them to a door marked 687. Holding up the lantern he had brought with him, the goblin took out the key and, with ease of long practice, slipped it into a key-hole so well hidden he doubted that even if he had got the sharingan, he wouldn't have been able to find it. Hell, de doubted even Neji's Byakugan would have found it.

As soon as it opened, billows of emerald green smoke burst out, causing Harry to start coughing uncontrollably. _"Kuso, don't they air these things?"_ Harry complained, wafting the smoke away with one hand. The goblin just gave him what looked like an amused look and Harry suddenly wondered if they understood Japanese.

When the smoke had cleared, Harry felt his jaw drop to the floor for the second time that day. Inside were mounds and mounds of gold, silver and bronze in stacks that probably would have taken years to count out. Hell, it was probably more than the entire clan had put together.

"_This all belongs to the Potters,"_ Flitwick said. _"And so it belongs to you, being the last in the Potter line, Uchiha-kun"_ once Harry had got control of himself again, he continued as he began counting out the money and putting it into a pouch, handing it to him. "_The gold ones are _Galleons_. Seventeen silver_ Sickles _to a_ Galleon_, and twenty-nine bronze_ Knuts _to a_ Sickle_. It should be enough for a few terms at_ Hogwarts_; the rest is kept safe for you. Alright, time to finish shopping for your school things."_

"_Sugoi, sugoi! Do we get to go on the car again?"_ Harry asked excitedly. "He turned to the Goblin and asked in his best English, "Hey, can we go even faster?"

The Goblin howled with laughter while Flitwick groaned loudly, already turning green. "One speed only, I'm afraid," Griphook said.

"Damn!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

One wacky cart-ride later and they emerged from the white building onto the streets of Diagon alley once more, Harry bouncing energetically, while Flitwick still looked a little pale, but was quickly recovering now he was on solid ground again.

"_Ne, Flitwick-sensei,"_ Harry asked, spinning round to face the tiny teacher. _"Where do we go now?"_

"_Do you still have your letter?"_ Flitwick asked as they began walking down the large, marble steps. Harry thought for a moment, then dug into the utility pouch, pulling out a rolled up envelope with his Hogwarts letters still inside.

"_This it?"_ Harry asked.

Flitwick nodded. _"Good. There's a list of everything you'll need for school in there."_

Harry looked in the envelope again. Sure enough there was another letter – the only one folded up properly now – and smoothed it out. Seeing this was the letter he needed, Harry quickly scanned the letter before he read the contents aloud, slowly and hesitantly, as it was in English.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Uniform_

_First-year students will require:_

_Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_One plain pointed hat (black) for daily wear_

_One pair of protected gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should require name tags_

_Set Books_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of spells (Grade 1) By Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Other Equipment_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

Flitwick lead them to the entrance of a shop that said Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions _"This is where students come for their robes,"_ Flitwick said.

As they entered, a squat, smiling witch dressed in Mauve, who Harry guessed could only be Madam Malkin said to them, "Hogwarts, dear?" before Harry could say much of anything "Got your whole uniform- and quite few other's- right here. Now if you will step into the back, we can have you fitted in no time at all."

Flitwick waited patiently in the front room, while Madam Malkin steered Harry through into the back of the shop. There, she had Harry stand on a footstool and draped a robe much too long over him. Carefully, with years of practice, the woman began to pin and stitch it to the correct length. Harry forced himself to be still as if he were back at the academy to avoid getting pricked.

"Um…Miss Malkin," Harry asked hesitantly, wincing slightly at his thick Japanese accent that could clearly be heard but he guessed that it would get better with more practice. "Is it possible to make these robes a little more flexible at all?" it was bad enough he was expected to wear something that was uncomfortable close to being called a dress, but he wasn't about to cut off manoeuvrability as well. If they didn't do it, rules or not, he would refuse to wear the damned 'uniform'.

Madam Malkin stopped in her work for a moment and thought about it. "Well, it's not something usually done, at least it doesn't say on the uniform specifications…"

"Miss Malkin," Harry continued, in a way he remembered his Uncle used to do during formal occasions. "I can pay extra for it, if you wish. But its something of a …clan preference back home." He paused for a moment, then stiffly bowed low to her, "Please."

If the Hokage had been in there, he probably would have had a heart attack on the spot. An Uchiha doing anything even close to begging? It was unthinkable. However, if it got him what he needed, then he'd tolerate it, for now. Either that, or he'd be making 'minor alterations' at home.

Madam Malkin hesitated for a moment, before her expression softened slightly. "I suppose I can do it this once," she said finally. "But I hope you don't get in trouble for it young man."

Harry smiled at her. "Sankyu very much, Miss."

The woman blushed and quickly busied herself with starting a new robe with higher manoeuvrability. Well, Harry reasoned, might as well use that damned Uchiha charm for something.

After a while, the woman said "Well, that's you done, my dear. Now, what's the name to put on the nametags for you?"

"Its Harry Uchiha-Potter" Harry said, thinking he'd better get used to his birth-name and the English name conversion.

"Madam Malkin wrote down the name to place on the nametag. "Ha-rry… U-chi-ha…Pot-ter…" she mumbled. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Hang on, Potter? As in Harry Potter?" she gasped, dropping the labels she was holding in shock.

"Uh, yeah?" Harry said indifferently. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh n-no, Mr Potter…"

"So," he cut in with a dashing smile. "How much is that?"

To Harry's pleasant surprise, Madam Malkin only charged Harry the normal price, despite Harry's requested customising, with the woman herself extremely flustered and stuttering. It was rather annoying in Harry's opinion, almost as bad as everyone back in Konoha after the Uchiha Massacre.

A few minutes later, Harry and Flitwick finished at Madam Malkin's and walked outside.

When they walked into a shop called Flourish and Blotts, they still had plenty of money so Harry bought everything that looked interesting along with his schoolbooks, specifically some of the books that looked like they'd be specifically useful in a Shinobi battle, although he didn't tell Flitwick. He wasn't sure how much the man knew about then hidden countries and Harry wasn't spilling anything to him. Shinobi trade secrets and all that. So he bought them while Flitwick was busy looking at some charms books. After they bought all of the books, they went to the apothecary to get their potion supplies. Harry promptly bought a pewter cauldron and dumped his books into it.

"_Ah yes, it looks like there's just your wand to buy now, Uchiha-kun,"_ Flitwick said as they came out from the shop. _"Oh, and a pet if you'd like one."_

"_Uh-huh,"_ Harry said. _"Can we get my wand first though?"_ he'd been looking forward to getting his own wand, especially after seeing what Dumbledore did during his visit to Konohagakure.

"Well then, there's our next stop" Flitwick squeaked. He pointed to a narrow, shabby shop with peeling gold letters over the door, which statedOllivanders: Makers of Fine wands since 382 BC A single wand lay on a purple cushion in the dusty window. "Ollivanders. _It's the best places for wands. Here we go!_"

As Harry pushed open the door, a bell tinkled somewhere in the depths of the shop. It was tiny inside, empty but for a single, spindly chair in the middle, which Flitwick promptly occupied, his tiny legs swinging a foot or so from the floor. Harry fidgeted slightly and his eyes narrowed and scanned his eyes over the row upon rows of narrow boxes piled high to the ceiling. It was as if Harry had entered some sort of strict library crossed with a shoe shop. However, there was just something…odd about this place that set his nerves on edge. A shiver made its way down his spine. The very dust felt thick with powerful magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice.

Now there is a well-known saying back in Konoha: never surprise an on-edge Shinobi – it might be the last thing you do. Unfortunately, whoever it was must not have heard this saying. He had already rounded on the stranger, pinned him against a wall and had a kunai at his throat before he could even say 'genin'. He found himself staring into the wide, silvery-blue eyes of an old man with an ageless face. They sort of reminded him of moons that seemed to glow in the dullness of the shop. However, they were also wide in shock. He winced, suddenly realising that this man must be the owner of the shop – Ollivander-san himself.

…Oh, now he felt like a complete idiot.

Feeling his face heating up, he pulled away just as fast, whipping the kunai from his throat once more and allowing it to hang limply in his hand. "Um, sorry about that," Harry said apologetically, spinning the kunai round his finger a few times before slipping it back into his thigh pouch, ducking his head slightly with a cold Uchiha-style frown to cover up his embarrassment. "You startled me." He thought he heard a sigh of relief coming from Flitwick's direction.

"That's quite alright young man," Ollivander said softly, waving it away with a hand, although the other was rubbing tentatively at the spot his Kunai had been barely moments before. "It is partly my own fault for sneaking up on you." He smiled, something that surprised Harry. "Still, in all my years, never once has anyone pinpointed me so quickly, even when I speak to them. Well done, Mr Uchiha-Potter."

Harry gave a start. "How did you…?"

"I've been expecting you for quite some time, Mr Uchiha-Potter." He said this in such a way that you couldn't mistake it for a question. "You look very much like your Father, but you have your Mother's eyes."

"Do I?" Harry asked, dazedly

"Oh yes. I remember the days when your parents came to this very shop to buy their wands. Oh yes, those two wands would have done great things for the world, but alas, it was not to be. Your mothers' wand was made from Willow and Unicorn tail hair, 10 ¼ inches, swishy, good for Charms, powerful wand that one was. Your father, however, favoured a Mahogany and Dragon heartstring wand, 11 inches, a little more power than Lily's, excellent for Transfiguration."

That…was more than Harry knew about them, actually. Hungrily, he stored that information away in his mind, along with all the new information he had learned about them since finding out about the wizarding world.

"Well, I say your Father favoured it," Ollivander continued, locking him with his slivery eyes. "It's really the wand that chooses the Wizard, of course."

Ollivander's eyes switched to Flitwick, who fidgeted slightly under the intense, somewhat creepy gaze. "Filius! Filius Flitwick! It has been a long time. How nice to see you again. Pine, fourteen inches, rather whippy, great for Charm-work – is it still working well for you?"

"As well as the day bought it, thank you!" Flitwick squeaked with a smile.

"Good, good. Well now – Mr Uchiha-Potter. Let me see." He pulled out a long, silver marked tape measure from his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

Harry assumed he meant his writing hand. "I'm Ambidextrous, Sir." The Uchihas, specifically Fugaku and his tutors, had painstakingly made sure of that. A good shinobi needed to have all his weapons at the ready and it was an efficient shinobi who could use both hands in battle.

"Interesting…which arm do you use more than the other?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Probably my right arm, but I can use my left just as well."

"Hold out your wand arm – that's it. Just a few measurements to be done." Ollivander measured Harry from shoulder to fingertips, then wrist to elbow, Shoulder to floor, Knee to armpit and (for some insane reason) round his head. As he was working, Ollivander said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a very powerful substance, Mr Uchiha-Potter. We use Unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and dragon heartstrings. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns; phoenix or dragons are the same. Of course, this means you would not get quite so good results using the wand of another."

Ollivander had left to search through the shelves in the back of the dark corner; however, something was still tickling at his nose. Harry gasped when he realised the tape measure, which was now measuring everything from Harry's finger length to the space between his nostrils, was doing it of its own accord. Immediately, he sneezed and the tape measure crumpled to the floor in a messy heap, causing Harry to sweat-drop.

Meanwhile, Ollivander had come back with a wand for Harry to test. "Right then, Mr Uchiha-Potter, try this one. Yew and unicorn hair, twelve inches, nice and flexible," he stated as he held it out for Harry. "Go on, give it a wave."

Somehow, Harry has a sudden feeling of Foreboding. However, he did as ordered and waved it slightly. Immediately, the large, dusty store window across the room shattered with a loud crash, causing Harry's jaw to drop. Discreetly, Flitwick pulled out his own wand and with a slight flick, it repaired itself.

"Hm…no, definitely not that one," Ollivander mumbled to himself, his eyes gleaming in anticipation as he turned back to the shelves.

Harry picked his jaw up off the floor. Well, whatever doubts he had been harbouring towards himself had vanished, that was for sure. However, he was seriously starting to consider having a Medic-nin surgically secure his jaw, seeing as it had a rather nasty habit of dropping a dangerous amount of times in the wizarding world.

Somehow, in the back of his head, a mental Naruto was laughing his head off.

"How about this one – Ebony and Phoenix feather. Ten inches, springy. Try."

Wondering just what might happen this time, Harry flicked the wand. A jet of fire shot out of the wand and set the first wand on fire. Flitwick gave a panicked squawk, and leapt to his feet, while Ollivander hurriedly pulled out his own wand and flicked it, sending a jet of water to put it out, but it wasn't working muck, except making it splutter sparks at them. It was only when Flitwick joined him that it was smothered by water. It hissed, sending out a small billow of black smoke that made their eyes itch.

Harry's eyes shone as he looked at the wand in admiration. Oh, his mild Pyromaniac side was cheering. Somehow, this time Harry saw a mental Sasuke joining the howling-with-laughter mental Naruto beaming and snickering next to him.

"Oh, I like this wand!" Harry exclaimed. He turned to Flitwick and Ollivander, who were looking a little singed at this point. "Hey, can I have this one?"

"NO!" both of them howled at him.

Harry sweat-dropped and, pouting, placed the wand next to the charred remains of the first.

Ollivander, it seemed, as much as he was singed from the fire, was not put off at all. In fact, he seemed even more eager. "Now, how about this one - Holly and dragon heartstring, thirteen inches, very pliant…"

Harry had never realised just how long it would take to get a new wand – until now. The same routine went on for the next fifteen minutes, Harry would grab the wand, Ollivander would tell him about it, and something dramatic would happen. A miniature tornado in the middle of the shop, soaking Flitwick with water, every piece of glass in the shop would shatter and so on – there seemed no end to it. Already the small stack of wands had already reached half Harry's height in size. Harry was starting to lose all interest and was getting irritated in his boredom. To add to Harry's growing annoyance, Ollivander seemed to be growing happier the longer it went on. He was really starting to wonder if all wizards were clinically insane. That being said, he remembered he, too, was a wizard, although a rookie one and briefly wondered if he should get a medic-nin to give him a CAT scan once he got home.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match for you here somewhere…" Ollivander, once more was looking through the boxes of wands when he paused, pulling out one box slowly with a thoughtful look on his face. "Hm…I wonder…" He gave himself a slight nod and brought it over to him. "An unusual combination. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took that one too, boredly getting ready for another burst of Magic and some sort of miniature disaster when a tingling warmth spread at his fingers, causing Harry to snap to attention. Intrigued, Harry brought it swishing through the dusty air and a jet of brilliant emerald green and crimson red sparks shooting from the tip like fire-crackers, throwing triumphant spots of dancing light all over the walls.

Flitwick cheered happily and energetically clapping his hands, while Ollivander cried, "Oh, Bravo! Yes indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"

"What's so curious about it?" Harry asked, seeing as Ollivander was now muttering "curious, curious," to himself as he placed the wand in its box and wrapped it in brown paper, oblivious to the other two people in the room.

Ollivander paused in his mutterings, his head snapping round to fix Harry with his raptor-like slivery-blue eyes. "I remember every wand I have ever sold, Mr Uchiha-Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail-feather resides in your wand gave one other feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand, when its brother," Ollivander was exceptionally close now and gently pushed back Harry's Hitae-ate before Harry realised it, exposing his lightning bolt-shaped mark. Carefully, he traced it with a long, pale finger. "Gave you that scar."

Harry stiffened; pulling away and roughly tugging down his hitae-ate once again, glaring at the man. However, he could feel his fingers shake slightly, although he was sure he hid it enough that only he could tell that. Flitwick squawked and fell off the spindly chair with a loud crash.

"Yes. Thirteen and a half inches. Yew," Ollivander continued as if nothing had happened. "Curious indeed how these things happen. The Wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Uchiha-Potter." He handed Harry his wrapped up wand, catching his eye once more as he turned to stand the other side of the counter. "After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."

Harry said nothing as he paid seven gold galleons for his wand, glad that he wouldn't have to spend any more time with the man - he would probably set an ANBU on edge, that Ollivander. Face in the Uchiha-ice mask, Harry took his wand and left the store without looking back.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"_So, Uchiha-kun, do you want a pet to take to_ Hogwarts _with you?"_ Flitwick asked about ten minutes later as they walked down Diagon ally, absently dodging the people as they passed.

Harry snapped out of his brooding over what Ollivander had told him to take interest in what the small teacher was saying. _"What kind of pet would you suggest out of the three we can take, sensei?"_ He asked.

"_Well, people don't tend to go for toads any more, but it all depends on what kind of pet you're looking for. Cats are good companions, while Owls can deliver your mail for you."_

Harry thought about it for a moment, then grinned. _"Well, I did promise I'd send a load of letters to my brothers… Where do I get an owl from?"_

It wasn't long before Flitwick had leaded them to a store baring the name Eeylops Owl Emporium.

Pushing his way into the store he was assaulted by screeches and chuckles and other odd noises from the numerous cages that lined the walls. Looking at all the different birds, Harry had no idea what he was looking for. _I mean, what does a postal owl look like anyway?_

The clerk eventually came up to him with a warm smile. "Can I help you at all?"

Harry winced at a particularly loud screech from one of the larger birds and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I'm after a postal owl." He told her doubtfully, hoping that the woman could take things from there.

It looked as though his luck was in for him for a change as the woman nodded and drew him up to the counter. "Now, were you after a long distance bird, or something for over short hops?" she asked.

In idea struck him at that. Well, hadn't his brothers asked for something as well? "Well, my family live…very far away, so I was wondering if you have two long distance owls at all. It would be pointless to have only one considering the amount of time the poor creature would be on the wing."

The woman nodded thoughtfully and left him at the counter. She came back a moment later with two cages. One held a soft-feathered, beautiful-looking tawny owl with pale-brown streaks in its feathers that looked almost like flames. The other held a rather large, jet-black eagle owl. Harry never thought you could get an owl that colour, but it looked so majestic. On close inspection it had a white marking on its chest in what almost looked like a blurred cross-shape.

"As a partnership, these two work well together." The woman said. "Now" she indicated the tawny. "This little lady is a swift flyer and as silent as you could wish. This handsome fellow," she indicated the black eagle owl, "Is a strong flyer and, if you treat him right, would even fly through fire and hail if you asked him to."

Harry grinned and ran a finger down the soft black feathers, allowing the owl to eye him with its amber eyes, until it was obviously satisfied with whatever it was looking for and leaned into the touch.

"Do they have names?" he asked as he turned his attention to the tawny owl, which hooted and nuzzled his fingers with her beak.

"No, not yet."

"That's good," Harry muttered. "I'm sure that Sasuke and Naruto'll enjoy finding a name for them." He turned back to the clerk. "I'll take them. How much are they again?"

It wasn't long before Harry made his way out of the shop, his new owls in brass cages dangling from each hand.

"_Um, Uchiha-kun, I thought you were going to get one owl…"_ Flitwick said as soon as he spotted him.

"_I did,"_ Harry answered. _"The other is for my brother's so they can contact me. Do you have any idea how far it is from here to my village? The poor bird wouldn't last a year the amount of letters I'll end up sending. Its so we can send letters to each other and let the other bird rest for a while."_

Flitwick obviously couldn't argue with the reasoning and just shrugged.

By the time they had got everything and headed back to the leaky cauldron, it was already late in the afternoon, so Flitwick suggested they have something to eat before Harry headed off back to Konoha via a return Portkey (another scroll) that Flitwick had been given from Dumbledore. While Harry slowly ate his meal, Flitwick took a sip of his 'cherry syrup and Soda' before saying, "_Albus gave me a_ Portkey _to give to you, for September first."_

Harry grimaced slightly at the thought of having to use another Portkey, but pushed his discomfort to one side. _"So, where's that one going to take me?"_

"_It'll take you to Platform nine and three quarters at ten o'clock, on the magical side of the barrier,"_ Flitwick explained, passing the Portkey (a simple steel hoop, like a thick, one-piece bracelet) to Harry, who quickly pocketed it. "_Oh, and before I forget…"_ Flitwick pulled out an envelope and passed it to him. _"This is your ticket for the train – all the details are on there, if you get confused at all."_

"_Arigato,"_ Harry thanked him, before standing up, picking up his purchases – a feat in itself, seeing as Harry had to balance things one on top of the other to manage it. _"Thanks for today. However, I'd better get home, so I can start practising my written English, otherwise my written work'll look awful."_

"_Just say, _'Fire shadow' _and it'll send you back home_," Flitwick stated with a smile. Harry couldn't help but smirk as well. After all, 'Hokage' meant 'Fire shadow'. _"It was nice meeting you, Uchiha-kun. Hope to see you do well in Charms – My class, you know."_

"_I look forwards to it, Sensei,"_ Harry replied. He pulled out the scroll. Bracing himself, he said clearly "Fire shadow" and feeling the disconcerting tug at his naval, vanished.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Where's Niisan!" Naruto complained loudly.

"How do I know, Dobe? Urusai!"

It had been hours since Harry had left for London and Naruto and Sasuke were once more sitting in the Hokage's office. The sun had almost set and there was still no sign of their honouree older brother, so, of course, the two boys were exceptionally worried. Unfortunately for the poor Sandaime Hokage, that meant that he had to endure Naruto's complaints and bickering from a just as stressed Sasuke.

"B-but he should have come back hours ag- Argh!"

A loud sound interrupted them when Harry, along with several parcels and two bird cages, complete with owls, suddenly appeared in thin air just above the two trainee shinobi. "Look out!" Harry cried.

Bum-whumph-crash!

Gravity once more decided to take control and the young genin, with a cry, fell. Unfortunately, at least for the two poor individuals standing underneath, he landed on top of them, followed by a rain of paper wrapped parcels. It was only by pure luck that Harry managed to save the poor owls.

Sarutobi covered his eyes with a hand as the whole Hokage tower shook. Instantly, the ANBU stationed outside the door burst in, but paused at the sight in front of them. Immediately, they turned round and walked back out. Sarutobi risked taking a glance.

The three boys were lying in a messy heap on then floor, Sasuke and Naruto on their stomachs on the floor, with Harry lying face upwards on top of them, holding two rather disgruntled caged owls, all three of them looked as though they might have a mild concussion or something.

"Ugh…Aniki…you're heavy…" Sasuke mumbled, looking rather sorry for himself.

"I hate _Portkey's_…" Harry groaned, trying to pull himself off.

"I hate them too…" groaned Naruto.

"Ditto." Grunted Sasuke.

Sarutobi sniggered softly. Harry turned to him, eyes blazing. "What are you laughing at, Ojii! This is all your fault!" he hurled a parcel at the old man, only to have him dodge it, until Harry threw another one, which landed dead centre. "And you could give me some warning next time, Hokage-baka! You just wait, as soon as I learn some good spells I'm gonna Hex you!"

Sarutobi rubbed is poor forehead. "You're really getting bad habits from Naruto, Harry-kun," he wined - well, as much as the Hokage could wine after all.

"Shut up!"

**TBC**

Japanese translations 

Hai – yes

Kami – god

Daijobu – It's fine/ I'm fine/ Don't worry (has a lot of similar meanings, depending on the context)

Kocho – headmaster

-San – Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms, etc

-Kun – honorific between male students that promotes familiarity or affection.

-Chan – honorific meaning little or dear

Kuso – a swear word

Itai – ouch/ ow – an exclamation of pain

Ojii/ Ojiisan – grandpa

Nan da – what (see also Nani)

Hajimemashite – please to meet you for the first time

Sensei – teacher (can also be used for a doctor or professor)

Oi – hey (more vulgar. See also Chotto, but it is more polite than 'oi')

Matte – wait

Sugoi – cool/ amazing/ wow

Sankyu – merely thank you in a Japanese accent

Urusai – Noisy, annoying, usually used or translated as shut up.

Mahojutsu – One I made up. Literally 'Magic Technique'

Chosha's Notes 

So, what do you think?

By the way, the Portkey entrance earlier was actually an adaptation of the one from the Goblet of Fire movie. A had a rather funny mental anime picture in my head and I couldn't help but write it that way, but hey, this is a fanfiction, ne?

Don't worry, there'll be a little more interactions in Konoha before Harry sets his sights on the Magical world, so yes, more Naruto, more Sasuke, More Neji, more Tenten, etc. Oh, and let me just say that you'll see, or hear, from them in chapters to come for first year!

Preview of the Next episode 

Harry: The day's coming closer! I'm going off to Hogwarts to learn some cool new 'Mahojutsu'!

Neji: I feel sorry for Hogwarts. Look Uchiha, you'd better not get yourself killed on your first 'Mission'.

Harry: I could say the same thing you, Hyuga! Next episode: Of Allies and Rivals – the Hogwarts Express! Look forward to it!

But until then, Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx 


	6. Chapter 5: Of Allies and Rivals

**Chosha's notes**

Hello and welcome back everyone. Thanks for your reviews. It seems that a lot of people are asking for a Harry-Neji, Harry-Temari, Harry-Hinata, Harry-Tenten, Harry-Anko, Harry-Tayuya, Harry-Harem or just neutral (like in Red Dragon Order's 'Over the Hills and Far Away, which I suggest people read, it's really good!). Just to let you know if I do parings, it will be only mild; otherwise it may get in the way of the story. So don't expect big snog scenes or something, in whichever I decide to do.

To answer a few questions concerning the Sharingan and Magic: Sharingan can see magic and 'slow down' movements enough to counter it. However, Magic can only be copied properly if the Shinobi has wizard potential (so they can tap into the 'Magic system', much like Harry when/ if he gets the Sharingan) and only if the spell doesn't require anything 'extra', like emotion-based magics such as the Patronus. The Patronus requires an extra – this being a very strong good memory. The Sharingan could copy the movements, but not the memory, so even if its copied perfectly in every other way, it still wouldn't work unless they concentrated on a good memory too. Even then, the Patronus could be weaker or stronger than the version copied from, depending on how good the memory is.

Yes, the Magic system and the Chakra system are two separate things. Those poor Hyugas if they can see both, ne?

With Harry and reading English, right. He can't read English well, and struggles with that, this we understand. As for speaking it, he is all right at it, but he mostly has an accent that is very pronounced, but I couldn't write it correctly without it getting tacky. However, he is a fast learner, so listening to others actually speaking English helped him a little while at Diagon alley. But he did say that it was the writing he was struggling with.

**Disclaimer:** as always, I own nothing of Naruto and Harry Potter.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Harry headed off to Diagon alley, where he met Filius Flitwick, a Professor at Hogwarts. There, Harry discovered a little more about his parents and the Wizarding world as he stocked up on supplies. Now, the time is slowly creeping up to when Harry is to begin his first 'mission' – Hogwarts itself.

**Chapter Five:**

**Of Allies and Rivals – the Hogwarts Express!**

"Hey, Aniki. How's the scribbles going?"

Almost a month had past since Harry had returned from his trip to the Magical World's Diagon Alley in the outlands city of London, England, and since then, Harry had been hard at work to improve his rather limited reading and written skills of the country's language. Thanks to the Hokage – who, although still sore about Harry threatening to Hex him as soon as he studied enough spells, was still nice enough to help (probably to avoid being turned into something unnatural by a pissed off Uchiha) - and as such, Iruka-sensei was asked to help him. And Iruka – being the considerate person he was – accepted. So over the month of august, it had become a common sight for Harry to have his head bowed over a book or something at the dinner table, or for Iruka to be talking him through the correct spelling of a word.

Out of a will to teach his 'little brothers' something to help them for any arranged time they may spend at Hogwarts – as per agreement (although Harry had to admit it was so he wasn't the only one suffering through the extra work as well.) Harry also started to teach them things as well. In fact, they had also taken to conversing in English so Harry could practice…plus it was as if they were speaking in a secret code, seeing as almost no-one but a few teachers and ANBU members knew what on earth they were talking about. The only reason Harry knew so much before was because of the Uchihas. Fugaku thought it beneficial for him to know the language so he, as Shinobi, may have the upper hand.

Harry looked up from the scroll he had been practising on and glared at the younger Uchiha, who was standing in the doorway with a half-smirk on his face. "It's not scribbles, Baka, it's English - Eng-lish. It's really not that hard to say."

The frown morphed into a grin when at that moment a jet black owl soared into the room and landed on Sasuke's head, who emitted an undignified squawk and attempted to pull him off. The eagle owl snapped back until Sasuke gave up, standing slouched with a ticking eyebrow as the owl hooted importantly and settled down as if sitting on a throne. Harry covered up his chuckled with the back of a hand "Or has Manji pecked your brains out now as well as turn your head into a nest?" he snickered.

Another change was the settling in of the two Owls that Harry had 'adopted', so to speak, and the fact that they had now been named.

The flame-shaded tawny had been named Hosenka, after the flame-based Jutsu, courtesy of the younger boys, who had spent over a week arguing ("lets caller her 'Gama-chan!'" – Naruto. "We are not naming her after your wallet, dekisokonai!" – Sasuke. "Better than calling her 'Fuuma!'" – Naruto. "Will you hurry up and name her already!" – Harry.)

On the other hand, the jet-black eagle-owl currently perched on Sasuke's head had been much easier to name, but this time it was Harry who did the naming, despite his brothers' whining. Due to the white, x-like mark on his chest, Harry had named him Manji, because if you looked closely enough, it did sort of look like the Japanese Buddhist symbol that Harry had heard of. However, Sasuke had argued about the name for a while, since the owl had taken a liking to using the boy as a perch – specifically his head. Harry thought it was funny, Naruto thought it was sweet.

Sasuke thought it should be barbecued.

"Harry, get your daft bird off of me before I fry it to a crisp!" Sasuke howled.

Harry sweat-dropped.

Of course, it was soon decided that – to save Manji from becoming southern-fried chicken – he would be going with Harry to Hogwarts. Hosenka would stay with Sasuke and Naruto until they either sent him a letter, or they wanted to get in touch with Harry.

Harry also had to make sure that no one would shoot the poor owls down either. For the first two weeks, Harry kept having visions of some Konoha Ninja harpooning one of them and serving them up for stir-fry.

"Manji, come here," Harry held out his arm. The owl hooted, disgruntled, but flapped over to Harry, cuffing Sasuke's head with a wing before coming to a land on Harry's arm. He stoked the ebony feathers gently, before shooting the younger Uchiha a smirk. "Awww, but you look so cute when you get flustered, Sasu-chan."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched and he turned away with a huff. "Sometimes I swear I want to send you through the roof."

"Oh, come on, can't you leave my poor apartment alone?" Harry whined. He heaved a great sigh, crocodile tears running down his cheeks. "My poor, poor, innocent house and all you and Naru-chan want to do is wreck it…"

Sasuke put his head in his hands "you're the only person I know who'd meet a threat with a comment like that, Aniki."

"You're paying for the repairs, Ototo," Harry added.

"You're off your rocker," Sasuke grumbled as he walked out of the room.

Harry snickered and called out a parting shot. "I love you too, Sasu-chan!"

"Gah!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry lay on the embankment staring up at the blue sky with the occasional fluffy cloud floating by and sighed in contentment. Sasuke and Naruto were at the academy and would soon be out and Harry had offered to pick them up and take them out for a meal, mostly because it would be the last day that Harry would be able to spend time with the younger boys until the holidays at Hogwarts. Despite that hanging over him, life was quite good. Sasuke and Naruto were advancing well in their classes and, with Harry's help teaching both boys' different jutsu he knew, they were the strongest in the class. Unfortunately, Naruto still flunked out academically, simply because writing (and paying attention) was not his strongest points. Harry had finished his written English classes and, despite being a little shaky, could now write enough English for any essays he might have to do, or to follow written instructions. It was a nice day, Harry was going to have a meal with his favourite people in Konoha and he had his very first mission to look forward to. Yes, life was good.

"Hey! Niisan! There you are!"

Harry blinked in surprise, twisting his head upward towards the shout, making everything look upside down. Naruto was running towards him, waving franticly, trying not to slip on the grass to reach him on the embankment. Thankfully for Harry's eyes, he wasn't wearing that monstrosity of a jump suite today, but a white T-shirt with a spiral-like flame pattern on the front in red-orange, as well as a darker pair of shorts. Sasuke, who was following at a slightly slower jog to avoid doing damage to himself, followed. They stumbled to a halt beside Harry, who propped himself up by the elbows to watch in amusement as the two bowed slightly, resting their hands on their knees in an effort to get their breaths back.

"You could have told us… where you'd be meeting us," Sasuke complained as soon as he got his breath back enough to talk. "We've been looking for you… for ages."

"Yeah, yeah! And we had to dodge some of Sasuke's fang-girls," Naruto butted in. He grimaced and shared a glance with Sasuke before both of them shuddered. "Man, they're scary! I hope I don't get them when I'm Hokage!"

"Except 'Sakura-chan', right?" Sasuke teased slightly, still shooting a worried glance over his shoulder as if expecting said girl to leap out at him at any moment.

Naruto blushed. "Sh-shaddup, Sasuke-teme!" he growled.

Harry glanced between the two of them, before his eyes widened in realisation and he smirked in a way that would have done Sasuke proud. "Ooooh, I see. You have a crush on this Sakura girl!"

"Niisaaaaaaan, not you too…" the blonde wailed.

Harry snicked at the rather interesting shade of red his whisker-marked cheeks were turning, but decided to let the matter drop for now. After all, he'd rather go to Hogwarts with his ears in tact. Naruto was loud when he was annoyed, and that said something since Naruto had to be the most loudmouthed Ninja-in-training to have existed…at least according to Sasuke anyway.

"Well, we'd better get going to Ichiraku's, otherwise the sun'll set us on fire before long," Harry he stood up and dusted the back of his blue shorts and set off towards the path, Naruto and Sasuke following him. As they walked along the road, occasionally waving to an acquaintance as they passed, Harry turned to the younger boys again, hands resting on the back of his head. "So, Sasuke, how'd you get rid of them this time?" he asked convocationally. Seeing their blank faces, Harry elaborated. "Your Fan girls, Sasu-chan. Did you use pattern B this time? Or perhaps you jumped straight to my personal favourite of pattern Z?"

"Nah, I did a combination of XZ and pattern G," Sasuke told him, running a hand over his forehead and shot a mild glare at Naruto. "I would have tried plan XYZ, but I bumped into Naruto no Baka here and had to save his ass from getting trampled too."

Naruto followed the convocation with wide eyes until he exploded, "Hey, just how many escape plans have you guys come up with!"

"Well, you've got to remember that having stalkers seems to be a family trait," Harry told him with a grimace, keeping an eye on Sasuke to see how his reaction would be. Seeing Sasuke seemed fine with it, Harry continued. "So a lot of plans were just ones other clan members mentioned," he would not mention the name of just who it was who made them. "But then Sasuke and I devised a lot of them, partly from some of my escape patterns to get away from prank-scenes and such. Actually, we made up so many that we ran out of letters. We've even got a plan ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ." He chuckled

"But if we didn't have that many, I think we'd have been smothered by those batty girls by now," Sasuke put in, grumbling.

Harry pictured that and grimaced, while Naruto smothered a laugh. Harry shot him a mock glare. "Just you wait, Naru-chan. When and if you become Hokage, I'd like to see how you deal with it." He retorted, although there was no spite in it. He shot Naruto a slight grin as he gaped slightly like a fish out of water as he pushed aside the curtain and ducked inside the entrance of the Ramen Stand.

As they entered, a young woman dressed in a waitress-styled uniform turned towards them. "Welcome to Ichiraku's – Oh, Harry-kun!" she smiled as she realised who the customer was. "It's been a while! We almost thought you wouldn't be coming back."

Harry gave a breath of a laugh at that. "Fat chance of that, Ayame-san, especially when you count how much ramen Naruto eats."

"There is that," Ayame giggled. She turned to Naruto. "You'll be wanting your usual, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grinned. "You bet, Ayame-san!"

"Well, as long as you three have the money for it," the owner called over teasingly, already gathering together the ingredients, while Ayame hurried over to help prepare them.

It wasn't long before the aroma of ramen could be smelt and Ayame placed the bowls in front of them. "Here you go! Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Ayame-san," Harry said, all three of them grabbing chopsticks from the small stand, but he paused before he split them.

"Something wrong, Aniki?" Sasuke asked, noting the hesitation.

"Nah, nothing really. I was just thinking that I should have asked Iruka-sensei if he wanted to come too. You know, to thank him for all that English stuff he taught me. Hm, guess I'll have to do it when I get back from Hogwarts."

With that, he snapped apart the chopsticks and with a quick "Itadakimasu" began to eat, soon followed by the younger boys – Naruto already setting his usual high-pace, while Sasuke set a more leisurely one, eyes closed as he savoured the taste.

It wasn't a surprise that Naruto was the first to finish his bow, gulping down the miso loudly before slamming the bowel back on the table with a contented gasp for air. He lifted his bowl towards Ayame. "More please!"

Ayame laughed, turning to prepare another bowl. "More coming up!"

"Ne, Niisan," Naruto said hesitantly turning to Harry.

"Nah?" Harry managed round a mouthful of noodles.

"Are you sure you'll be able to understand that _En-goo-lish_ stuff okay?"

Harry swallowed. "Don't worry about it, Naruto," Harry said offhandedly, waving his chopsticks for emphasis. "According to Iruka-sensei, my spoken English was alright before. It's fine if you don't count the strong accent I've got compared to the way those other Outlanders at Diagon Alley spoke it. And as long as I listen carefully, I shouldn't have any problem with that. And my writing's getting better."

"You know, it would have been easier if you had the Sharingan, Aniki," Sasuke pointed out. "I know you could activate it if you wanted."

The older Uchiha paused, then laughed.

"What's so funny, Aniki?" Sasuke choked out, his pale cheeks tingeing pink.

"I-I'm sorry, Sasuke," Harry chuckled, shaking his head in an effort to calm himself. "I just got a strong feeling of Déjà vu. I swear we've had this convocation before."

Sasuke paused, a small grin spreading across his face. "Yeah, we did. I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say you also got Nara blood in you too. You're really lazy sometimes, Aniki."

"Well, just as long as he isn't that lazy that he screws up."

All three of them jumped at the new voice and turned to see Hyuga Neji walking up behind them, pausing not ten steps away, arms folded lazily across his chest. Harry frowned. "Hey, I know you can see for Kami-only-knows how far, but didn't you know that eavesdropping is rude, Hyuga."

Neji smirked. "How could I not hear? You were talking loudly enough for the whole street to have heard."

"Hey, who's this guy?" Naruto growled, looking from Harry, who was half turned towards the newcomer with an eyebrow raised and Neji, who was standing behind them, a faint smirk on his face. He sounded like it was a personal affront that he didn't know.

"Can't you tell, numb-skull?" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Look, he's got the same eyes as that Hinata from our class. He's a Hyuga."

Neji gave a sharp nod. "So you must be the Sasuke and Naruto that Uchiha here talks about sometimes. So you're in the same class as Hinata-sama, hm?"

"This is Hyuga Neji," Harry explained, seeing as both boys whipped round to look at Harry. "He's that Hinata girl's cousin and he's in the class ahead of you. We've known each other for a while. Hey, Hyuga, so what you doing round these parts, and without your 'Shadow' Tenten either." Harry turned back to the other boy, eyeing him as he slurped up some more of his noodles. "I didn't think ramen was really your thing."

"Unless you've forgotten, the Hyuga estate happens to be in this direction," Neji said. He paused, looking down on Harry for a moment with pupil-less lilac eyes. "I hear from Hiashi-sama that you're headed out on a Mission out of the village tomorrow, solo."

"Yeah. Wow, doesn't news fly, ne?" Harry said, a slight flippant edge in his voice.

The Hyuga let out a slight breath of a laugh. "So it does. I feel sorry for this Hogwarts place, to have to put up with you for so long." his face took on a slightly more serious edge to it. "Look Uchiha, you'd better not get yourself killed on your first mission, got it, Ahou."

Harry snorted. "As if, Blank-Eyes." A slight smirk appeared on his face, "Shame I can't say the same thing to you yet."

"Don't think that will last for long," Neji pointed out, giving a slight wave over his shoulder as he continued down the street, his long hair swaying as he walked. "Later, Uchiha."

Silently, they watched him leave.

Harry snorted. "Nice to know he has such faith in me. Tch."

Sasuke looked back at his steadily growing cold noodles. "So that was Hyuga Neji, huh?"

"Man, that guy has one serious Attitude problem," Naruto growled, shaking his head with squinty eyed disapproval.

Harry laughed. "Yep, that's Hyuga for you!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Now, are you sure you've got everything, Harry-kun?"

The day had finally arrived that Harry was to leave for Hogwarts and, not only his first day at the school of witchcraft and wizardry, but also his first mission. (Even if it was just information gathering on the different spells and the workings of this 'Magic' of this 'Wizarding World'). Now Harry was once more standing in the middle of the Hokage's office, dressed in his usual blue Uchiha-symbol-marked wide-necked T-shirt – long sleeved for once - and a pair of off-white shorts. (His arms and legs unbound to blend into 'Outlander' crowds – the bindings stored away in his hip-pouch.) This time, however, he was surrounded by a rather large trunk that was almost as big as Naruto and a large bird cage, complete with a rather disgruntled looking Manji. No doubt the owl remembered the rather undignified entrance it had received into the Shinobi village.

Like before, Naruto and Sasuke were both there to see Harry off again. This time, however, they hadn't had to skip out on the academy again to bid him farewell, seeing as it was a weekend. Their farewell would have been much appreciated on Harry's part – if it wasn't for the fact that the Hokage had repeated the exact same question as the two boys had already asked him repeatedly that morning.

Harry couldn't help but heave a great sigh. "You know, with the way you lot talk to me, you would have thought I was a little kid. It doesn't give me the warm and fuzzes to know you guys don't even trust me to pack, you know."

The Hokage coughed discreetly. "By the way, Harry-kun, I have something here for you."

"Ara?" Harry blinked in surprise as the Hokage suddenly threw two scrolls at him, which he quickly snatched out of mid air before they could hit him. He glanced at them. "Training scrolls?" Harry asked.

"Inside those scrolls are two techniques that genin are usually taught by their Jonin sensei. However, since you aren't going to be here for a while and don't have a Jonin sensei as of yet, you'll have to teach yourself from these scrolls. Seeing as you taught Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun jutsu from scrolls before, I have the utmost faith that you can do it."

"Wow! Never thought I'd hear you compliment me," Harry joked. He looked back at the scrolls with interest. "So, what're these techniques then?"

Sarutobi blew a smoke ring and smiled in a secretive way. "That you'll have to find out for yourself, Harry-kun" Sarutobi chuckled. Harry pouted.

"Spoil sport."

"Now, Harry-kun – this is the Portkey that will take you to the train station platform that will take you to your new school." The Sandaime pulled out the steel-looking hoop from within the draw of his desk that Harry had given to him for safe keeping and passed it to the Uchiha, who quickly tucked the training scrolls away in his back pouch in order to take it from him. "It should activate soon, so make sure that you have said your goodbyes and are touching everything that you need to take with you."

Harry promptly sat on his trunk and clutched hold of the owl in his free hand. Naruto and Sasuke moved forwards to say there last farewells to their brother before he set out. After all, they wouldn't be seeing each other for several months.

"Ne, Aniki…" Sasuke started, before blushing a little and moving his head so his eyes were hidden by his bangs. "Look after yourself, Okay?"

The older Uchiha smiled at that and pulled the boy into a hug, causing Sasuke to yelp and blush even more. Harry tried not to laugh at his brother/ cousin's bashfulness. "Don't you worry, Sasuke. It'll only be for a couple of months. Then you can come visit me at this Hogwarts place!" he pulled away and looked at Sasuke hard. "Now, you better pay attention to academy. I wanna full report next time I see you."

Sasuke beamed at him.

"Ne, ne, what about me!" Naruto pouted. Harry laughed and pulled Naruto into an one-armed hug. "You too Naruto. Try not to annoy your sensei too much, if you do a prank don't get caught. Oh, and if anyone gives you any crap about your…furry little problem, then you send me a letter and I'll make sure I hex them a good one when I see them. I'll need to practice those spells somehow, don't I?"

"Hai, Niisan!" Naruto saluted, grinning widely.

The Hokage, however, frowned slightly. "What do you mean, 'Furry Little Problem'?"

"I thought you were the one who made the laws not to talk about it, Ojii," Harry answered dryly from round his brother's heads.

"Harry…" Sarutobi warned.

"Alright, alright. Its not like it was a real secret before that Naruto's the Kyuubi's vessel, was it?"

Sarutobi crashed to the floor behind his desk in shock, sending sheets of paperwork flying. Recovering himself and hauling himself back into his chair, he shot a sharp look at both the younger boys.

"Ne, don't worry about it, Jijii," Naruto grinned. "We all know about it."

Sarutobi opened his mouth as if to scold them, then changed his mind and palmed his forehead. "How'd you find out about it?" Sarutobi sighed in defeat.

"Che, well, there was a reason why I found that hidden pile of perverted-ness you've got stashed away, Ojii," Harry explained, as if talking to a little kid. "Come on, you don't think I didn't notice all those adults looking at Naruto weird and you weren't spilling, so I decided to find out for myself. Anyway, we know the laws. No talking about Kyuubi, blah-de-blah-de-blah."

"And now I know why the villagers look at me funny, I want to become Hokage even more!" Naruto interjected. "If I become Hokage, I'll show them that I'm better than some dumb-ol' Kitsune!"

"And you, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke shrugged. "What's to say? It kinda makes sense to me. Sure explains why Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba seem so alike. But it doesn't matter if he is Kyuubi's jailer or whatever, he's still my dobe ototo." He smirked at Naruto.

"Oi, what makes you think I'm the ototo? I could be your niisan!"

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah right. Don't you think the fact I happen to be older than you even if it is by a little would make you the little brother?"

Harry laughed at their antics. The Hokage sighed, rubbing at his temples with his fingers and shot them a withering look. "We'll talk about this later, you three."

"Look forward to it, Hokage-ojii," Harry smirked at him. Suddenly, a sharp tug at his navel silenced him. "Oops, Time to go! Ja-" And in a flurry of wind and colour, Harry vanished before he could even finish the sentence.

Hundreds of miles away, a loud crash and a loud and unfamiliar string of cusses interrupted the busy buzz of chatter platform of nine and three quarters as the young genin appeared, in a rather strange and more undignified manner than any self respecting shinobi would wish to be in. Thankfully, he had managed to avoid crashing into any dustbins this time, but landing on your trunk and having a bird cage almost land on your head was not something Harry cared to repeat any time soon.

Having run out of insults at stupid Portkeys (the now ordinary steel ring was promptly discarded, after several minutes of contemplating setting the thing on fire first.) Harry turned to look at where he had ended up this time. He wasn't sure whether to let his jaw drop or to wince at what he saw.

A bright crimson steam engine billowing smoke from its black funnel stood, waiting proudly at the edge of the platform. Overhead, a large sign bearing fancy lettering proclaimed Hogwarts express, 11 O'clock. Men, women, children of all ages – most of who wearing the same uniform as the one Harry had storied away in his trunk - were standing around the platform itself chatting, some even leaning out of the windows of the train to say goodbye to someone or other. Owls hooted in a disgruntled manner from birdcages that were similar to Manji's all over the place and Harry spotted more than one cat mewing as they wound around their owner's legs. Over the sea of heads, Harry could see a wrought iron archway bearing the words Platform nine and three-Quarters standing over a solid-looking brick wall of all things, except that even more people were entering through there. Another magical genjutsu, if he had to hazard a guess. Still, Harry couldn't help but shake his head and sigh to himself.

_Civilians never learn, do they?_ He couldn't help but sigh. _So many people crowded into a place like this? It's a potential death trap. The Shinobi back home'd have a field day over this._

He paused for a moment or two to observe the different groups as they bid farewell to each other. Older brothers or sisters were cuddling their much younger siblings for the last time before they were to leave for school. Older children bashfully trying to duck out of getting kissed by mothers, or having them absently straighten up their clothes… Harry jerked his head away, closing his eyes for a moment as he pushed back the twinge of…something, and tossed his head to one side with a glare.

_Che - I hate crowds_, he grumbled. _I hope this Hogwarts place'll be big enough, otherwise I might just go insane from claustrophobia!_

Snorting to himself, Harry, unable to spot any free carts around and getting fed up of being jostled around, tugged his trunk towards the train, wincing at the awful scraping sound it made across the platform. He was really glad for all the Taijutsu training he had got at the academy; otherwise he was sure he would have been in no little trouble. Especially since the lack of air in his lungs from tugging the thing would most likely have knocked him out by now otherwise if nothing else. You would never have thought it, but despite his rather aerodynamic frame, Harry was also surprisingly (and rather fortunately in this case) strong. Sure, he was no heavyweight or anything, nor insanely strong as some ninjas got, but he was no weakling either.

Still, it was just his luck that all the compartments towards the font of the train were full. Grumbling under his breath about stupid Murphy's law and its obsession with him (_I mean, its not like there's no-one else to annoy round here_!) Harry dragged his trunk to the last compartment of the train and, seeing it was empty, dropped his trunk to the ground with a loud thump.

"Finally!" Harry sighed. Unfortunately for him, there was still the rather large gap between the platform and the doorway. "_Chikusho_," He groaned, but a movement to one side caused him to half turn and blink when he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. There stood two stock boys with red hair, freckles and looked as if someone had placed a mirror between them, because they looked like exact clones of each other. He was half convinced that they might just be that, if it wasn't for the different Chakra signatures he picked up.

Besides, who would want to walk around with a Bunshin of themselves for no reason?

"Hey, you need help?" one asked.

"We couldn't help but notice you dragging that trunk all by yourself," the other added.

Harry thought about declining at first, but decided against it. After all, they were just trying to be friendly. He gave them a small smile. "Sure, thanks."

As independent as he was, he still wasn't stubborn to the point of foolishness, especially when it came to anything like this and Harry was soon glad for his decision to enlist the twins help. It was a struggle lifting the trunk with all three of them, never mind just Harry himself – genin or not. Plus, it took much less time.

"Heh, thanks," Harry said a little breathlessly, rubbing the back of his head.

"No problem," one of the redheads grinned. "By the way, That's Fred-"

"And that there is George" the other twin – Fred – finished off.

Harry Idly wondered if they practised to finish each other's sentences so seamlessly like that.

"You must be a first year, right?" Fred continued. "Would have recognised someone like you otherwise. Especially with that accent-"

"And with such cool accessories," agreed the other - George. Seeing Harry's confused expression, he grinned and tapped his forehead. "Nice!"

Harry couldn't help but allow himself a chuckle at that, adjusting his hitae-ate slightly with a hand. These guys reminded him a little of Naruto – or even Sasuke in his most mischievous moments. "I like it a lot myself!" Harry replied proudly, remembering the dumbstruck expression on his examiners' faces when he passed his test.

They were interrupted when a voice floated through the train's open door. "Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming mom!" The both yelled back. Quickly they turned back to Harry. "Hey, if you get stuck around Hogwarts, you just look up the Weasley twins, alright? See ya!" before they bounded off the train towards the voice.

Harry watched after them for a moment, before flinging his legs up on the seat and stretched out, sticking his hands behind his head as he gazed up at the ceiling, idly listening to the chatter coming from outside. He smiled slightly, wondering just what the other trainee wizards would be like. If they were anything like those guys – or like the kids back at the ninja academy, things would be rather interesting. Closing his eyes, he let his grin widen. "Heh, at least I won't get bored."

Harry started slightly when the train started to move. It was a bit uncomfortable, considering there was nothing like this back in the hidden countries – except perhaps the carriages that the Fire Daimyo owned, or the trading caravans – but he soon relaxed again, shutting his eyes once more. However, his eyes snapped open again when the compartment door slid open. Harry turned his head to look at the person now hesitating in the doorway.

It was a boy an inch or two taller than he was, but about the same age. Tall and gangling, he had the appearance of being all knees and elbows, but what caught his attention were a shock of bright red hair and a scattering of freckles across his nose. _So he's either a relative of those twins, or else an extremely bad clone of them,_ he mused to himself with a mental snicker. However, he let none of these thoughts show on his face but polite enquiry.

"Er…" the boy started and shifted under Harry's intense gaze. He paused a moment, then seemed to make up his mind. "Anyone sitting here?" he asked. "Everywhere else is full."

"Be my guest," Harry said with a slight quirk of his lips, waving a hand to one of the empty chairs as he sat himself up with a stretch.

The boy gave a slight smile and took a seat across from Harry. For a while, both of them were silent. Harry knew that the boy probably wanted to say something to Harry, since he kept sneaking curious glances at him. However, before Harry could growl at him for the looks – boy it was irritating! – or the boy could start up a conversation with the Uchiha the door opened once more and in bounced the twins from before.

"Hey, Ron, there you are!" One of them – the one called Fred, if Harry recognised the slight difference in Chakra from the other twin – said when he spotted the younger redhead. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a giant Tarantula down there."

"Right," Mumbled Ron. Harry noticed a very slight paler in his colouring at the word 'Tarantula', although if one wasn't looking (or wasn't an Uchiha) it wouldn't have been noticeable.

"Oh yeah," George said, seeing Harry. "Hey, we were meaning to ask, before we got interrupted. We didn't get your name before."

Harry was about to say Uchiha Harry immediately, but quickly changed his mind. After all, it was more than likely that he would be introduced to his year as Harry Potter, seeing as that was how it was written on his letter. Instead, he settled for a compromise. "Oh, its Harry. Harry Uchiha-Potter. Pleased to meet you"

"Uchiha-Potter? That's an odd name," the younger boy – Ron? - said musingly. "Uchiha sounds sort of sounds foreign."

"I guess it is," Harry agreed, mentally comparing it with the other names he had heard on his short visits to England. "Uchiha my clan name. I've used it for years, since my Father's cousin adopted and raised me as his nephew after my parents died."

"Potter sounds English to me, though…" Ron trailed off, his eyes widening. "Hang on, Potter? As in Harry Potter?"

Harry winced, half recognising the look in the boy's eyes as similar to the ones that some of the villagers who knew of the Uchiha tragedy gave Sasuke and himself for having survived.  
Here we go again… 

"Yeah…"

Silence fell on the carriage suddenly. All three of them stared at Harry, then each other, then back at Harry. As one, their eyes all jumped to his forehead. At first, Harry thought they were staring at his Hitae-ate, until he realised just what it was they were looking at his forehead so expectantly for. Harry sighed, and pushed up his hitae-ate at a slant, pushing up his bangs to reveal his pale-red lightning-bolt shaped scar.

Well, lets just say that poor Lee Jordan and his giant spider were completely forgotten by this point.

The Twins promptly placed themselves across from Harry, either side of Ron, all of them staring at Harry. "Woah! You really are him!" George said in awe.

"I mean, we heard the rumours," Fred said with a nod to the other two. "They've been reporting in the Daily Prophet that you'd been found but no body was sure if it wasn't just some prank or something someone had slipped in, since–"

"There've been rumours that you were dead, or kidnapped by You-Know-Who's supporters, so we didn't know if they were true or not, especially since you disappeared more or less right after you defeated You-Know-Who." Finished his twin.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the 'You-Know-Who'. "Er, sorry, but I can't say I do know who."

The redheads gave a start at that. "What, you mean you don't know about You-Know-Who?" Ron gaped.

Harry frowned. "I just said I don't know who. Who are we talking about?"

"You know…" Ron looked about conspicuously, leaning in closer and whispered. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"

"Why mustn't whoever it is be named?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Oh come on," Fred said in exasperation, "you know, You-Know-Who, The Dark Lord, ring any bells?" seeing Harry's blank expression. "You know - The guy you defeated ten years ago!"

"Ooooh, you mean Voldemort?" Harry paused when everyone flinched at the name and renewed their stares at him, this time a mixture of shock and awe. Harry cocked an eyebrow again, intrigued by their reaction. "What?"

"You…you said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron gasped, sounding both shocked and impressed at once.

"Why, shouldn't I?" Harry asked, only to be greeted by incredulous stares.

He couldn't remember Dumbledore or Flitwick mention anything about such a thing when he met them, but he gathered that Voldemort must be Taboo territory, like the Kyuubi and…well, the Kyuubi. Quickly he changed the subject of this unknown ground – at least until he learned more – to safer grounds.

"Anyway, I guess you guys are related. Brothers', right?" Harry said, which earned him a groan from Ron, and beaming Naruto-like grins from the twins from either side as they slung an arm over each one of the younger boy's shoulders. Harry grinned, feeling kindred spirits already. "So, who does the pranks?"

Ron gave an even louder groan, while the twins' grins widened to Maito Gai-levels and gave him identical victory V's. Harry laughed. Naruto would love these guys. "You and my brothers' would make Hell if you guys met, I'm sure," Harry chuckled.

"You have brothers too?" Ron asked, surprised, from round the twins as he attempted to push them off.

"Yup, two little brothers," Harry beamed. Now this was an area he could go Maito Gai on himself, never mind that the guy freaked him out and usually made him want to go running for the hills if they were in the same vicinity. "Sasuke and Naruto – they're back home with Grandpa Hokage– hopefully not tearing down my apartment!"

"You've got a Grandpa?" asked George

"Well, he's not technically my Grandpa, but the old man is sort of our guardian, so it's almost the same thing. Besides, it's fun to see his face when we call him that!"

"So, what are your brothers like?" Fred asked eagerly.

And the convocation took off like a house on fire from there. They must have covered everything from wizarding life ("So, are all your family wizards then?" – Harry. "I think so. I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him." – Ron.) To what their home lives were like. Of course, Harry carefully omitted any and all parts that marked him out as a shinobi. After all, they were called a hidden Shinobi village after all and they were pretty tight on giving out information that might put them at risk. For the most part, Harry listened to their stories with a calculating interest on any potentially useful information and carefully dodging all questions about any family other than his brothers and much of his own life in Konoha. Thankfully, it seemed that they didn't notice too much. Obviously being from a genius ninja clan had its benefits.

About half way through the morning a black boy with long dreadlocks, who looked the same age as the twins, slid open the door and looked in. seeing the twins he sighed in a mix of mock annoyance and relief.

"There you are! Some 'I'll be back in a few minutes'," the boy grumbled, although his eyes sparkled in amusement.

"Eh heh, heh…Oops?" George rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Jordan."

Fred looked the new boy up and down for a moment before cocking his head to one side. "What happened to your tarantula (Ron flinched minutely at this) Jordan?"

The black boy shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing much. Some of the older Slytherins decided to have a look and were picking on some of the younger kids, so I left Flint with it… down his shirt." The twins looked at each other and burst out laughing. Obviously, this Flint person was not well liked. Meanwhile, the new boy - 'Jordan' - looked round at Ron and Harry. "Oh, so that's your little brother you told me about starting this year?" he nodded towards Ron.

"Yup! Our little bro!" the twins chorused, ruffling Ron's hair. The boy squawked in protest and tried to duck away, without much success. His hair now stuck up in a way that made Naruto's Porcupine, Sasuke's chicken-butt and Harry's mop look neat.

Jordan laughed and turned to give Harry a curious look.

Seeing the look, the twins quickly bounced up to introduce them. Fred slung his arm round Jordan's shoulders. "This here is our friend and great mate-"

"Our partner in crime, Lee Jordan!" George finished with a flourished bow, which Jordan returned with a wide grin, whipping off an imaginary hat to them. George bounced over to Harry, clapping him on the back with a grin (Harry forced himself not to flinch at the contact) and continued in the same 'announcers voice', "And this here is our new friend starting in Ron's year – Harry Potter!"

Jordan promptly face vaulted in shock. Staring up at him, Harry sighed and tugged up his hitae-ate once more just to avoid any continuing stares. Jordan grinned. "Sweet! They've been saying all up the train that Harry Potter is starting this year!"

Harry was surprised news could travel that fast in a non-shinobi environment. Pushing that thought to one side, Harry said. "Look, its Harry Uchiha-Potter, or Harry Uchiha, please, Jordan-_sempai_," Harry insisted. "I haven't been just 'Potter' since I was one."

"That's cool," Jordan nodded and grasped his hand. "Pleased to meet ya, Harry Uchiha!" he winked.

The twins followed the initiative, sticking out their hands and grinning. "Oh yes, charming to meet you, old boy!"

"Oh yes, absolutely spiffing!"

The one on the right had stuck out his right hand, while the one on the left had stuck out his left hand. Harry chuckled and, without missing a beat, shook both simultaneously. Ron snickered at just how odd it looked.

It wasn't long before the lunch trolley came and, despite Harry's annoyance at the interruption, found himself faced with all sorts of strange sweets and cakes. Although not really a sweet-toothed person – unless it came to dango – (after all, with the way he grew up…) Harry was intrigued enough that he bought one of everything just to try it out. Of course, his companions also joined in with eating the sweets, seeing as Harry wasn't about to pig out on candy in front of them when they had only sandwiches – a gesture that immediately made him their best friend, it seemed, much to Harry's amusement.

It was quite an interesting ride from then on, with these four other students, talking about all kinds of wizard related things – this time they had got onto different kinds of wizarding jobs. Harry was fascinated by the work done by the Weasley's older brother Charlie, who worked with dragons. They flew, they were big as houses - Hell, I mean, they breathed fire! What else would an Uchiha need before they found a kindred spirit – i.e. before they found someone just as much a pyromaniac as they were! However, the door, once more, snapped open, effectively ruining the whole convocation.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed slightly in annoyance, his eyebrow ticking dangerously. If these interruptions kept happening, Harry thought he might just have to throw something.

Pushing aside his slightly destructive thoughts, he looked up to see who had interrupted them this time.

Standing in the doorway was a girl of his own age, already dressed in Hogwarts robes with bushy brown hair and slightly large front teeth. Behind her stood a rather tear-streaked, round-faced boy who looked both upset and also a little shy as well.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville here's lost one," she said in the kind of voice that had a bossy edge to it that, he assumed to a civilian, brooked no argument. However, Harry could also see an air of intelligence around her that made him think that she had reason to be. It sort of reminded Harry of one of the strong-headed kunoichi from his old academy class who got top marks in all her theory work. If it weren't for Harry, he would guess she would have been Rookie of the Year.

"Uh, sorry, we haven't seen any toads," Ron said

"Oh well. If you see any toads, come find us. We've been looking all up the train," the girl replied.

The boy, Neville, on the other hand, looked depressed, so Harry decided to spare a moment of pity for the boy, remembering the occasion's his blond brother had worn such an expression. "I think I read somewhere there is a spell you can learn to summon things. That might help out next time he goes on walkabout."

Neville brightened a little and gave Harry a shy smile.

Hermione, however, was observing Ron and himself curiously. "By the way, you two look as though you're in the first year, like Neville and I, right?" she said knowledgeably. "I don't suppose either of you is from Muggle families are you? Nobody in my family was magical at all, you see, so it was such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased of course. I mean, Hogwarts is the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard. I've learned all our set books by heart of course, I just hope it will be enough. I'm Hermione Granger by the way, who are you?"

"Er…" everyone blinked at the end of this speech, unsure as to how to respond. Harry was morbidly fascinated about how she was still alive after saying so much, so fast, with no air, without having at least turned blue and dropped unconscious from lack of air.

"I'm Fred-"

"And I'm George"

"Lee Jordan"

"Ron Weasley-"

"Our little brother," added the twins.

"Harry Uchiha-Potter – Uchiha if you please."

"As in Harry Potter? Really?" said Hermione, a look of interest on her face. "I know all about you of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History, and the rise and fall of the dark arts and Great wizarding events of the twentieth century."

Great, as if it weren't bad enough that being one of the last Uchihas probably already had his name written in the shinobi bingo book, but he was also written in books here too? Man, that was creepy!

"Well, you learn something new every day," Harry muttered to himself.

"Goodness, didn't you know? I'd have found out everything I could if it were me," Hermione said. Harry decided not to tell her that he'd already seen one book with a supposed 'account' of what had transpired and almost threw the book away in disgust. He just hadn't realised that more people had written stuff about him. "They say you vanished and were never seen again – some even say you were kidnapped by You-Know-Who's followers."

Harry growled, "I've read one of them too – I just didn't think there were more of those things. I really wouldn't believe all of it."

Hermione looked surprised. "Why ever not?"

"Well, if you think about it," Harry answered, leaning back in the chair with his hands behind his head. "Books have got to be written by someone. And if I really was the only person to survive that night and don't really know what happened then myself, then how could other people?" Harry chuckled, the mood lightening slightly. "Besides, I was raised by my grandmother's family."

"Is that why you called yourself Uchiha then? So you must have been raised in Japan then – I mean, with a name and accent like that," Hermione continued. "Are you hoping to get sorted into Ravenclaw, Harry? I've been asking around and I'm hoping for Gryffindor, It sounds by far the best. I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You lot had better get changed, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And with that she left, half dragging the poor boy Neville along with her leaving a gapping Ron, three rather impressed older boys who promptly started talking about how cool it would be to be able to talk without the need of air, and an Uchiha who was still trying to work out everything she said because she had spoken too fast for his newly acquired English skills to have caught everything.

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered.

Harry rubbed his head with a wiry grin, wondering how the girl could remind him of Naruto, Iruka-sensei, Neji and Fugaku all in one breath.

_Heh, I definitely won't be bored_. "_Yare, yare_…"

After the no-air girl Hermione and the toad-less boy Neville had gone, (and the group had recovered from the girl's show to get past saying anything but Ron's articulate 'Bloody Hell') the convocation soon switched, once again. This time, to something called 'Quidditch'. From what Harry could gather, it was some kind of ball game played fifty feet in the air on broomsticks – something that as much caught his interest as well as he amusement. I mean really, flying on a broomstick? Okay, so he was adaptable to the whole magic gig, but flying on a broomstick! Even Sasuke, the most emotionally controlled of the brothers outside the house, would have sent his fan girls into shock by bursting out into laughter _in front of them_ if he heard.

However, when the door was thrust open again, this time Harry was almost ready to throw a kunai at the intruder, except that he was sure Dumbledore wouldn't be pleased if a student was found stabbed to death.

This time, however, it wasn't an amiable third year from the twins and Jordan's class, nor was it need-no-breath Hermione or the Toad-less boy Neville. And whatever it was about these guys put all his shinobi senses on alert.

The people at the door were in fact three boys. Two of said boys were large, built like miniature bodyguards and mean looking. They also, to Harry's trained eyes, looked slow and clumsy and rather unintelligent. Not much of a threat unless they caught you. Harry's eyes switched to the middle boy. This one, on the other hand…

The middle boy, unlike his companions, was small, slight and looked as though, if trained, would be pretty fast on his feet. He had blond hair and a pale, pointed face that looked a little like a ferret's. In fact, he sort of looked like a very sickly Yamanaka. And, unlike the other two, seemed to have an air of authority about him that placed him amongst people like the Hyuga and the village elders, ego wise. Said boy was looking Harry up and down as if gauging him, a smirk flickering on his lips when they rested on Harry's scar, which could be seen under Harry's still-crooked hitae-ate.

Harry felt his eyebrow tick. Yep, definitely like a Hyuga. But this guy had long gone past Neji on the ego-scale.

"Is it true?" he said in a refined, yet drawling voice. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter-"

"Uchiha."

The smile flickered from the blond boy's face as he was thrown off track at the interruption. "…What?"

"It's Uchiha, or Uchiha-Potter if you must - not Potter," Harry continued, although he kept his eyes fixed on the newcomers warily. From the moment they had come in, the three Weasley's and, to some lesser extent Jordan, had tensed. Untrained as they were, Harry instinctively recognised the posture as one readying himself for a fight.

The boy recovered with surprising fastness. "Still, you are Harry Potter, right?"

"Harry Uchiha-Potter, Yeah," Harry answered, wondering where this was going. "Um…Who exactly are you guys, anyway?"

The boy nodded, the smirk re-appearing. He jutted his chin towards his two companions. "These are Crabbe and Goyle," he said carelessly. "And my name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron coughed loudly in a poor cover up for a snigger at the odd name. Obviously, Harry wasn't the only one to notice. Malfoy's head whipped round and zoomed in on Ron. "Think my names funny, do you? No need to ask who you three are." He looked them up and down and sneered. "My Father told me all the Weasley's have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford."

Ron turned bright red at the rebuke, while the twin's usually cheerful faces were darker than storm clouds. Malfoy turned back to Harry. "You're new to our world, so of course you really don't know who to associate with. Of course, you don't want to be associating with the wrong sort." He held out a hand. "I can introduce you to more…important people."

Harry looked at the hand for a moment. Now, as shinobi, Harry knew having important associates was a good thing, especially for finding out information and such. However, Harry was also his own person. He decided what he would do, and whom he would associate with. Plus, this Malfoy guy had irritated him. It was well-known back in Konoha Harry's dislike for those who treated his friends and family – especially Naruto and Sasuke - badly (specifically the people who picked on Naruto for being the Kyuubi vessel) and this guy had just won first prize in how to piss off an Uchiha competition.

"I think I can judge that for myself," Harry said in his best Uchiha ice. "But thanks for the offer."

The four occupants stared at Harry in surprise at the tone, while Malfoy's eyes widened slightly, before narrowing, a slight pink tinge appeared on his pale cheeks. His eyes narrowed warningly. "Careful, Potter-"

"Uchiha"

Malfoy ignored that, his glare hardening. "Unless you're politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They never did know what was good for them."

Now, If Harry weren't who he was, he would have risen to the bait at that. However, this was Uchiha Harry we are talking about.

"Duly noted. I'm sure such a…'Important person' has somewhere else to be, so why don't you leave." he met Malfoy's eyes with a humourless smirk. "_Kusoyaro_."

Although Harry spoke the last part in Japanese, the spite in his voice marked it out as an obvious insult. Malfoy's eyes narrowed into slits.

"We don't feel like leaving, do we boys? We've eaten all our food, and you still seem to have some-!" He reached out towards the sweets, only to yelp suddenly as Harry's fingers snapped around his arm in a vice grip, his eyes shadowed under his dark bangs. Malfoy squirmed in pain, trying to pry Harry's fingers off, but the genin squeezed slightly - a warning. Malfoy cried out in pain.

"Aaargh! Your gonna break it!"

The two bulky 'guards' rushed forwards to Malfoy's aid, only to find a swift kick to the stomach and a light chop to the neck causing them to crash into each other, dazed. Harry looked up from under the shadow of his bangs, emerald eyes glinting dangerously. "Don't push me," he whispered, although his voice carried in the stunned silence of the room broken only by Malfoy's pained grunts. "Or you'll make me angry," he pushed the other boy away lightly, tilting his head to one side with a smile that held all the harmlessness of a wild tiger, "Malfoy-_san_."

Malfoy clutched his arm to his chest, glaring at Harry hatefully. "You'll pay for that, Potter." He cocked his head to Crabbe and Goyle, who were disentangling themselves and gaping at Harry. "Come on. Lets go." Shooting Harry a venomous glare, they left the compartment, slamming the door closed.

Harry watched them leave with a blank look on his face. He frowned and tossed his head to one side. "Tch." However, the movement caused Harry to notice the other occupants in the room were gaping at him. "_A-ano_…"

"That-" Jordan started, his eyes wide as plates.

"Was-" George was looking at him as if he had found his god

"So-" Fred's face was cracking into an excited grin

"Awesome!" Ron cried, staring at him with a new-found awe.

Harry sweat dropped. So much for being discreet…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

The voice echoed slightly as it travelled down the train, cutting into the group's convocation.

Harry glanced outside the window, already feeling the quick pace of the steam engine slowing down. As they had been travelling, it slowly began to grow dark outside, while the scenery had changed to a more wild, mountainous region that Harry was almost glad to see. This was the type of countryside the hidden countries had. Hopefully, with that in mind, the crowds wouldn't be too big, either and Harry would be able to find somewhere to practice first thing in the morning.

Quickly, Harry pulled his robes over his clothes, looking down at himself speculatively. The robes, as asked, had been custom made to be more manoeuvrable, for which Harry was glad, looking at Ron, who looked like he was wearing a long dress of some kind. At least Harry's felt like he was wearing something similar to the Sandaime's uniform - except, instead of the Hokage's red and white, the robes were a jet black. He just hoped he didn't look like some kind of cross dresser.

He had just adjusted his hitae-ate back to normal again, covering up his irritation of a scar as the train finally came to a complete halt. By this point, Harry noticed that Ron was starting to look a little green, while the other three occupants seemed excited, their eyes dancing. Closing his eyes, Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out, letting his own nervousness and anticipation flow out with it, so that when he opened his eyes, he looked calm and composed as any of his clan. He smiled.

_Show time_.

It took a while before they managed to push themselves through the mass of students and out onto some sort of train platform. Harry was glad for the robes now when the cool night air hit him. There was a reason the country Konoha was located in was known as 'Fire country' – it was always warm. Here, Harry felt as though someone had blasted ice towards him. It took a lot to prevent himself from shivering and looked around for any clue about where they needed to go.

A bobbing light caught his eye and he turned round, looking over the sea of heads and paused as a shape came into his line of sight. It was a man, a teacher, Harry presumed. But where Flitwick had been tiny, this man was huge! At least seven, perhaps even eight foot tall, His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could just make out his eyes that glinted like back beetles in the lamp-light, under thick, bushy eyebrows that rivalled Maito Gai's (which was a miracle in and of itself). He beamed at them in a friendly way that completely contrasted the image.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Firs' years!" the man-giant yelled.

"Who's that?" Harry asked, eyeing the giant man.

"Oh him?" Fred said, seeing where Harry was looking. "That's Hagrid. He looks after the grounds at Hogwarts."

"Nice bloke," George added, "but for some reason, he always seems to think we're up to something every time he sees us…"

"That could be because he's always chasing you away from the Forbidden Forrest," Jordan pointed out.

"There is that," Fred grinned.

"Anyway, first years go up a different way than the rest of us," George said with a grin. "You just wait until you see what the castle looks like. It looks so cool from the lake. We go up by carriage. See you for the sorting!" and, with a wave, the three third years ran in the opposite direction to follow the main body of students.

"Lake?" Ron asked, looking stunned. Harry could almost guess what he was thinking – that they would have to swim. However, Harry thought that would defeat the object of the whole thing. However, one thing that intrigued him was-

"Sorting?" that girl Hermione had mentioned something about that. However, his thoughts were cut off.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind your step now! Firs' years follow me!"

The remaining students – all of whom looked about Harry's age, began to follow Hagrid down a small, narrow path that seemed to be lined by trees, from what Harry could see, although how far they went, he couldn't quite tell in the dull glow of Hagrids lamp. Almost everyone slipped and stumbled and it was only due to his shinobi training that Harry himself hadn't tripped on the uneven surface. They walked in silence, no one making a sound, although Harry could occasionally hear a soft sniff from Neville.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "Jus' round the bend here."

He was cut off by a loud 'Oooooo' from the first years. Harry himself aloud his eyes to widen slightly at the sight before him. When Harry had first heard of Hogwarts, he had been expecting a building similar to the ninja academy, replacing Jutsu with magic. However, when George had said castle, he hadn't been joking.

Far across a crystalline lake that seemed to glitter like diamonds in the slivery glow of the moon, standing high above them on a cliff was a stone structure of towering turrets and large windows that glistened golden like thousends of fireflies. It was at least half the size of Konohagakure no Sato, if not more and reached to the skies as if trying to grasp at the heavens themselves.

It wasn't long before the path opened up to reveal the lake edge, dozens of what looked like little fishing boats bobbing gently in the shallows.

"No more than four in a boat!" Hagrid announced.

Harry got in one of the little boats, soon followed by a skittish Ron, Hermione and Neville. Harry paused as it rocked to gain his balance, before seating himself carefully on the little bench, looking around the small boat's structure. It seemed sturdy enough – at least enough that they wouldn't get a leak or sink in the lake half-way over – but there didn't seem to be any sort of engine or even ores to move the boats with, much to Harry's confusion. Even amongst the shinobi, they at least used ores on boats such as these. Unless of course they had some sort of spell here to do that as well.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself at the front, "Right then – FORWARD!"

Almost everyone jumped when the tiny fleet suddenly moved off, skimming across the water like glass. Obviously, Harry guessed he had hit the mark and shook his head slightly. _Give civilians powers and see what they do with it_, Harry mused with fond exasperation. He smiled slightly to himself. _I think the Nara's would like this place._

Surprisingly, no one said anything as the boats moved onwards towards Hogwarts, staring up at the castle ahead in awe. In an effort to relieve himself from his growing restlessness, Harry looked down into the lake below, trying to gauge how deep it was. However, despite how hard he looked, he just couldn't see the bottom, even though the water was crystal clear.

"Harry, be careful, you'll fall in!" hissed Hermione, her eyes wide when Harry leaned over further to get a good look.

"Don't worry, Hermione-_san_," Harry replied, a wicked grin on his face. "I'm not about to fall."

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid from his boat.

Harry looked up from where he was looking into the lake to see that they had reached a cavern leading under the cliff and ducked to avoid the rocks. They were carried through a dark tunnel, which seemed to take them straight under the castle until they reached an underground harbour, where everyone clambered out onto a bed of rocks and pebbles. Hagrid quickly did a once over on the boats while some of the students attempted to get over seasickness. Harry spared a rare moment of pity for them.

"Oi, you there," Hagrid called to Neville – who was still a little teary-eyed – and pulled out a rather large toad from the boat. "This your toad?"

Neville brightened up immediately. "Trevor!" he cried blissfully, holding out his arms. Harry chuckled, thinking of Naruto and 'Gama-chan'. He had a feeling Naruto would like this boy, if only Neville could get over that skittishness and lack of any self-confidence he seemed to have – especially since they both seemed to like toads/frogs.

Seeing that Trevor wasn't about to escape again, Hagrid lead them by lamplight through a passageway into the cool night air to a flight of stone steps, leading to a huge oak door, big enough to have two Hagrids riding piggyback to get though easily.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid nodded at the mumbled response and raised a gigantic fist, knocking three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once, causing a few to jump. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes stood in the doorway. Her Chakra was as stern as her face and Harry knew immediately that this woman could hold her own and was not a person to cross – at least, not unless he was 100 per cent sure he could get away with it. She surveyed the students for a moment before Hagrid said, "The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled open the large doors wide, and Harry aloud himself a long, low whistle. The entrance hall put Gringotts to shame. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, but the ceiling was too high to make out. A magnificent, white marble staircase faced them, leading off into the upper floors.

"First-years, If you would follow me," McGonagall cut in to Harry's musing sharply. Everyone jumped to attention and followed the teacher passed the large doors that lead to the great hall – Harry could hear voices and movement from the other side – into a small room at the side. The first-years crowded in, keeping huddled together nervously, although Harry somehow managed to keep off to one side. He was uncomfortable as it was with large crowds to get caught in the middle of dozens of nervous kids. The teacher turned towards them, looking them over through her square glasses.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, her tone brisk. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is an important ceremony because, while you are here, your houses will be your family. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin," she continued. Harry snorted minutely at the names, crossing his arms as he lent against the wall. Fortunately, McGonagall hadn't noticed and continued. "Each house has its own noble history and each had produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Harry looked around at the students, a thoughtful look on his face. As much as this 'Point system' seemed interesting, he would have to be careful. These 'houses' were a little like the different shinobi villages and if he didn't watch his back, things could get ugly. Not as bad as the infamous Iwa-Konoha war, but still too close enough for comfort.

"The sorting will take place in front of the rest of the school in a few minutes time, so I suggest you smarten yourselves up as much as you can until then." McGonagall's eyes lingered on Neville's cloak fastened somewhere under his left ear, at to Ron, who's nose had a slight smudge across it.

"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

The first years immediately jumped to it, murmuring nervously among themselves, and, to Harry, looked positively sick. Sighing at how skittish everyone was being, he decided to start up convocation.

Hands behind his head, Harry turned to Ron. "So, how exactly do they sort us into these houses anyway?" he asked.

"Some sort of test, I think," Ron whispered back, "Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was only joking."

Harry had a feeling that the twin had been pulling Ron's leg, but decided to go along with it for now. "Why, what kind of test?" he asked.

"He was going on about wrestling a troll or something…" Ron looked exceptionally pale at this point.

"Wow, cool! Are they strong? They sound strong," Harry rubbed his hands together, a wide grin on his face. "I'd love to see how good a troll is fighting!"

Ron (and Hermione and Neville who were standing within earshot) stared at Harry as it he were mental.

"Are you crazy?" Ron half yelled. "Do you even know what a troll is? They're, like, ten foot tall, strong enough to break down boulders and hard as they are stupid."

"Just makes them a bigger and much more interesting target, Ron-_kun_. Heh, I'm looking forward to it."

"Mad," muttered Ron, shaking his head. "Absolutely barmy."

Harry chuckled slightly at that. Well, at least Ron no longer looked like he wanted to bolt. These wizards were so easy to wind up. He was going to have fun here, even if the people his age seemed to be more childish than even his younger brothers.

Just then someone screamed causing Harry to spin round, eyes narrow, body tense, his hands hovering over his kunai pouch, readying himself for an attack.

_Surely this sorting thing hasn't stared already?_ He thought, eyes scanning for the cause of the scream. What he saw caused him to stare in shock.

About twenty ghosts had just floated into the room _through the wall!_ They didn't seem to notice the children, arguing about someone – or something – called Peeves. Harry couldn't help but stare at them in fascination. Although he didn't have Sharingan to tell him what it was he was looking at, he was attuned to feeling chakra, and what he felt caught his interest. These ghosts felt similar to the residue chakra after performing a jutsu. _But that can't be right._ Harry thought as the ghosts finally noticed some of the shell-shocked students and began talking to them. He sighed. _Damn it, Sasuke might be right about the Sharingan thing. I'd love to know what it would tell me about these guys._

"Move along now," said a sharp voice as McGonagall returned and, surprised by the interruption, the ghosts hastily left. Turning to the first years, McGonagall said, "Form a line and follow me."

They followed in single file through the doors and were led into the great hall.

"Woah!"

Thousands upon thousands of lit candles floated in mid-air over four long tables laden with glittering golden goblets and plates. Round these tables sat the other student. At the top of the hall was another table, where the teachers were sitting. Here, the first-years were led so they stood in a line facing the other students who stared at them. Harry shifted a little, all too aware of the staring eyes and glanced away to see Ron staring at the ceiling. Confused, Harry glanced up too. His eyes widened as he saw the moon shinning back at him, stars glittering and the occasional dark cloud drift past.

Seeing where Harry was looking, Hermione whispered to him: "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I've read it in Hogwarts, a History".

"_Genjutsu_," Harry muttered in Japanese, earning an odd look from those closest to him. "_What is it with Wizards and Genjutsu_?"

Some students were looking at it doubtfully. Harry wasn't surprised. It still looked like they would get drenched if the heavens opened.

Harry switched his attention to look at McGonagall as she placed a stool in front of the first-years and, on top a rather battered old wizard's hat. Everyone stared at it incredulously, including Harry. But Harry stared for a different reason. He could feel a strange…something –a weird chakra-like energy coming from the hat. Was this the feel of magic?

As if in answer to his silent question, the hat twitched and a rip near the brim opened wide – and it began to sing.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff

Where they are just and loyal

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

Harry felt himself go a little cold inside as the hall broke into applause. So, in order to be 'sorted' into whatever house he was to go in, this enchanted hat would have to look into his mind, see his thoughts and feelings – his very being, to find out the best place for him. And it left him cold. After everything that had happened to him in his short life – after what happened that night – he hated anything that messed with his mind, made him see things that he didn't want to see. He hated not being in control. And yet here…

_I think I really would rather fight a troll…_

Harry's more reasonable part of his brain dropkicked the other thought of the proverbial cliff. _Baka_, he growled at himself mentally. _This isn't some sort of mind control. And I have the choice in this. If I don't like whats happening, I can just take it off._ Nodding to himself as his resolve hardened, he turned back to the ceremony.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward now, unrolling a long scroll-like roll of parchment. "When I call your name, You will sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with pigtails stumbled out of line and sat down, the hat placed on her head, which fell over her eyes. A moments pause. Then-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the Hat. And the Girl ran over to a table where the students were clapping and cheering. Harry saw a ghost that looked like some kind of fat monk wave merrily.

'Bones, Susan'

'HUFFLEPUFF!'

And so it went on. Names of people whom he had never seen nor met before were called out by McGonagall, had the hat placed on their heads and, after a varying amount of time – one Finnigan, Seamus for example was sitting there for over a minute before the hat decided Gryffindor. And then they would go to the table that clapped for them. However, he only partly paid attention, only really listening when Hermione went up to the stool. After a few moments the hat called out, "Gryffindor."

Harry watched as she ran over to the table that was clapping, he noted that the colours for that house seemed to be red and gold – amongst the clappers, Harry could just make out Fred, George and Jordan cat-calling.

Soon it was time for Neville to be sorted, the next one he paid attention to. The poor boy was so nervous, however, that he tripped up on the way to the stool and it was only after a long time of thought that the Hat announced Gryffindor. Neville was so shocked he almost fell off the stool. He ran off still wearing the hat, and, blushing furiously, had to jog back to give it to the next student amid the gales of laughter. Harry was caught between smiling at the Naruto-like boy and glaring at the students for laughing at him.

A name or two later and Malfoy was called. Still holding on his hand (I_t can't still be hurting him - wasn't even that hard a squeeze_, Harry thought with a slight shake of his head. _Nowhere near breaking it even)_ somehow swaggered up to the hat. It hadn't even scrapped the top of his hair when it shouted 'Slytherin'. Harry sighed as Malfoy made his way over to the green and silver table with Crabbe and Goyle. And to think, Harry had thought that house might be closer to his shinobi self for cunning.

A few more people whom Harry didn't pay attention to and then-

"Potter, Harry!"

"No Way!" Someone exploded.

"Its true! He really IS alive!"

"Oh My God!"

Harry, glaring at McGonagall for using that name, stepped out of the line, hands in his pockets as whispers and exclamations reached his sensitive ears that made his eardrums feel just about ready to burst. Instantly he found thousands of eyes fixing him with gaping stares. Hissed whispers that were louder than necessary broke across the hall like bursts of flame as he walked passed, but he ignored them as he crossed the hall towards the front where the teachers were all sat around a long table.

Harry met Dumbledore's twinkling eyes and the headmaster gave him a tiny smile and a nod. Harry nodded back, before shooting a glare at him, then the scroll in McGonagall's hand, letting the teacher see his disapproval at the announcement of his old name. Dumbledore obviously caught this, for his eyes twinkled even more in amusement and made a gesture as if to say 'you're free to make corrections'. Harry's lips quirked upwards and he gave the Professor a slight nod. From the way McGonagall frowned slightly, she obviously hadn't missed the by-play.

Taking the hat from McGonagall, he bowed ever so slightly to her, if not a little stiffly, to show he meant no disrespect to her as a teacher. "Forgive me," Harry said in a clear, yet clipped tone that caused the hall to suddenly fall silent. "But my name is not Harry Potter any more. I am Harry Uchiha or Harry Uchiha-Potter if you must. Please use one of those names, _sensei_."

McGonagall's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, but Harry ignored it as he sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head. Immediately, the world went black.

Harry sat there, silently, hearing his heart beating quietly in the hat-induced silence, wondering what was going to happen now.

"My, now this is interesting. I've never seen such a difficult person to sort."

Harry almost ripped the thing from his head and blasted a Gokakyu on hit, but refrained himself, despite the twitching of his hands as if longing to do such a thing. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to calm his thudding heart. No, no need to reveal any jutsu unnecessarily, especially if this was the way the hat sorted the students.

The Hat continued. "Yes, extremely difficult. My, my," the hat, if possible, seemed as delighted as Ollivander had been when Harry was testing his wands. "You're extremely loyal to those you consider your family and to your home, enough to make a great Hufflepuff, and intelligence – my, considered something of a prodigy among your age! But your drive isn't based on ordinary academics, hmm? You are extremely brave, especially if you would risk your life to protect someone, enough to be a worthy Gryffindor… And your life as a shinobi has developed cunning and skill that could rival most Slytherins. But where oh where to put you…I really can't begin to decide…"

"Listen, _Boshi_-_san_," Harry replied mentally. "Perhaps I can help. Just to let you know: if you put me in with Malfoy, you might just find that he is dead before the year is out. If you do that, I might rethink the decision not to turn you into crispy-fried hat. The only reason I agreed to come here is to become stronger, to become a better ninja enough that I can protect my brothers. And that's all."

The Hat was silent for a moment and Harry wondered if he had offended the hat a little too much with the threat of a Gokakyu. However, the hat spoke once again, softly into his ear.

"…I see," if Harry didn't know any better, he would have thought the Hat was smiling at him. "Bravery, inteligence, self-sacrifice, loyalty to your family…yes…So somewhere that will make you stronger for your home and Family's sake, but not Slytherin – are you sure? You could be great you know-"

"And you could be ashes, you know," Harry mimicked the hat, beginning to get annoyed.

"Okay, okay, no Slytherin," the hat replied hastily. "Well, if you're sure. Better be…"

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

Aniki – older brother

Baka - idiot

-Chan – a suffix meaning little or dear - Usually an endearment and sometimes used when teasing a male friend.

Ototo – little brother

Niisan – older brother (see 'Aniki')

-kun - used mostly between male students, or to indecate familiarity. can also be used on a supirior to inferior (like the Hokage to a genin, for instance!)

-san – Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms

sensei - teacher

-sama – a suffix given to someone of higher rank to oneself. I.e. Neji when speaking to/ about the clan head and the main house in the Hyuga family

Ahou – moron, fool

Ojii - grandpa

Kitsune - fox

Chikusho – damn, dammit

Sempai – upper classman

Dango - dumplings

Yare, yare – my, my - a sort of verbal sigh.

Kusoyaro – bastard ('teme' is another word for this, although I think the actual translation for 'Teme' is you, but said extremely insultingly.)

**Chosha's notes**

Good god, how long was that chapter anyway? Anyways, about the house I will put Harry in. Slytherin is really overly used in AU type Harry, so that will be avoided. Of course, Gryffindor follows cannon, so just to stop it turning into a total AU, and so the story doesn't go on for thousends of chapters (if I borrow an idea from 'Uzumaki Harry'). Ravenclaw isn't used too much, although I have used it in my Potter fic 'Celestin', but I have had someone think it is a good idea, while I've seen several Harry in Hufflepuff (would you believe! Harry as Haku being one of them in The Itch's 'For Your Dream' – it's a very interesting fic there.)

Well, anyway, lets just say I'm officially stuck. I don't know where to put Uchiha Harry. So, basically, I need help here. So, I'll write my reasons why I'd put Harry in a house, and if you could, could you comment on it? Alright then, here's the run down.

**Gryffindor –** the Cannon house, but fitting for Harry because he need to be brave as a ninja anyway. He faced up to Itachi to protect Sasuke (even if it went to pot) and if it was used, I could make it through the none-important bits quickly, because we can assume that is was similar to cannon and could be imagined. I have an interesting plot for very later chapters that involve the cannon characters of Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Jordan etc, but this house is used quite often.

**Ravenclaw –** well, he's an Uchiha, he's a quick learner, as said by Itachi in chapter one and it is similar to Slytherin, without the irritating characters such as Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy etc. But it will mean he ends up meeting more-or-less OCs or minor characters, like in my HP fic 'Celestin'. That might make it Mary-sue-ish, but that plot mentioned in the Gryffindor part could still work on in this house, but with other characters. It would elongate the story to over 100 chapters though, as I will have to go into more detail on minor events. But Ravenclaw is not used often, so it might make the story interesting during the Hogwarts and later on in the story chapters

**Hufflepuff –** don't laugh, it could work! Harry is exceptionally loyal to his brothers and, as a shinobi who sees Sarutobi as more-or-less family, to Konoha. He puts others before himself (a trait shared in both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, I bet) and it will scare the hell out of people in funny ways when he does something Slytherin-ish. Plus, Harry could be friends with the Gryffindors as well, seeing as Hufflepuff work with Gryffindor occasionally (well, more than Ravenclaw.) And that particular even mentioned in the previous two parts will still work out, better here with the characters it was intended for, with a few minor characters becoming more major. As said with Ravenclaw, they might turn out like OCs or something though. It did work out well on 'For your Dream' – a Harry is Haku story – with shinobi Harry in this house, if only it gives fun little I-can-get-away-with-it-cause-I'm-a-Hufflepuff moments. Another house not used often.

**Slytherin –** I'd really rather not use this house. It really is over-used in AU potter stories and the occasional crossover. Plus even though people like Malfoy, I'm not as fond of him at times, but like him as an anti-hero or villain, partly because he's fun to irritate. And with how Harry and Malfoy met, I don't think Harry will be too kind to him. You have to admit, he acts way too much like dark-evil cannon Sasuke at times. While I like Sasuke in the early parts of Naruto, I think he's an ass later on, and, unless something major happens in the story and Malfoy gets a personality change, I cant see Harry and Malfoy getting on very well. I do like to keep most characters in character, unless, like Uchiha Harry, they had a complete different upbringing to cannon characters. Plus, I don't want Harry to act all icy all the time, cause it'll ruin the tone of the story. And that interesting plot line in the future won't work. I've mentally tried it out. So, you've heard my reasoning for this house, so sorry people, no can do on Slytherin.

But with the other three, well…I'm stuck, even if some cannon-ish things happen – like the main, main events. Please help out, otherwise I can't update. Onegai?

Well, whatever house you guys choose to help me with, the main parts to next chapter will remain the same, so I can still do a next episode preview!

**Preview of the next episode of Uchiha Potter!**

**Harry:** so this is Hogwarts. Ugh, just like going to academy again. I mean, we got curfew at eight, irritating kids who seem to not stop stalking me and teachers who seem to think I'm some sort of person you could push around – hang on, wait – I thought this was a school – what the hell is that thing! Next episode: Philosopher's Stone: First Seal – Nazo. Look forward to it!

Nazo mean's mystery by the way. Anyways, till next time – Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	7. Chapter 6: Philosophers Stone: 1st Seal

Chosha's Notes

Hey there! Welcome back, everyone! I want to thank you for the help you gave me with what house to put Harry into. If anyone wants to see how I came to my end decision, then at the end of the chapter is my reasoning according to the results of my question to you. But to everyone who reviewed, I want to thank you all, even if Harry didn't end up in the house you asked for. Just to tell you, it was pretty close though!

Anyways, without further ado, I'll get on with Uchiha Potter!

**Disclaimer:** refer to previous chapters, cause I don't feel like repeating myself. What has already been said is ditto here.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**

"…_I see," if Harry didn't know any better, he would have thought the Hat was smiling at him. "Bravery, self-sacrifice, loyalty to your family…yes…So somewhere that will make you stronger for your home and Family's sake, but not Slytherin – are you sure? You could be great you know-"_

"_And you could be ashes, you know," Harry mimicked the hat, beginning to get annoyed. _

"_Okay, okay, no Slytherin," the hat replied hastily. "Well, if you're sure. Better be…"_

**Chapter Six:**

**Philosopher's Stone: First Seal – Nazo**

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry heard the word as it echoed through the great hall and a roar of applause sprang up in its wake, almost deafening him with its loudness that, strangely enough, seemed even louder than those that had come before.

"There you are," the hat said to him, "Not Slytherin, although I was struggling between putting you there, or in Hufflepuff, especially with all that loyalty of yours. But then, no Hufflepuff would have threatened to set me alight!" the Hat sniffed in a way which, Harry fancied, was disapprovingly. It couldn't be that the Hat was insulted by being threatened by a student, could it?

…Nah!

Taking off the hat and passing it back McGonagall, Harry's eyes sought out the Gryffindor table, where it looked like the twins were performing some kind of tribal dance.

"We have got U-chi ha! We have got U-chi ha!"

Jordan, who, it seems, was at least slightly more mature than the other two, merely sighed dramatically and looked as though he was trying to shuffle away from the other two boys as if they had gone nuts. Another redhead that Harry didn't recognise was hissing at the twins, who didn't seem to be listening, as they suddenly started to do a can-can.

"We got Uchiha, We got Uchihaaaaa!"

"Fred, George, get off the table!" the older red head yelled.

Ron, somewhere waiting in the line behind Harry, sweat-dropped and did his best to blend into the crowd - a rather hard feat, considering his face was now the same colour as his hair.

Suddenly, the twins jumped off and bounded over to Harry

"Harry, my boy!" Fred cried out, snatching up one of Harry's hands. Harry couldn't help but watch in a mixture of surprise and amusement – especially since no one else had got such treatment. "Let me be the first to congratulate you on being sorted into Gryffindor!"

"No, let me have the honour, I believe it would be more appreciated if I were to do it, dear brother," George said, snatching up Harry's other hand.

"It's an honour to have you in our house!" the both cried - and proceeded to pump Harry's hands up and down vigorously. Harry by this point felt as though all of his insides had been shaken up and was so disorientated he continued shaking his hands even when the twins let go, until his shaken-up brain had finally caught up with him. On reflex from dealing with his younger brothers on their most mischievous moments, Harry frowned, eyebrow twitching and wocked them both a good one, causing them both to cry out, their hands jumping to their heads.

Jordan, from the Gryffindor table shouted above the laughter "Good one, Harry!" which of course made the hall laugh once more.

Harry cocked them a smirk and couldn't help but snicker slightly at it all. Yep, he definitely liked these guys!

"Ow! Who'd have thought you'd be able to hit so hard!" whined George, pseudo-tears running down his cheeks, causing Harry's small smirk to widen. They recovered with surprising quickness.

"Well your lightning bolt-ship, we, meaning my less handsome twin here and myself, will show you to our table – now your table as well," Fred said, a beaming smile plastered on his face despite the growing lump on his head.

"I think what my brother meant to say," George butted in, elbowing Fred out of the way, "was that he and his more brilliant and better looking twin will escort you back to our table!"

Fred gave a loud tut, pushing George back, a wide smirk-scowl on his face. "I think not, you are more ugly and less brilliant my dear brother."

"Nuh uh, you're uglier, not to mention has the IQ of toad."

"Well, then that must mean that you're the ugliest and have an IQ no higher than that of a flobberworm."

"No, that would be our dear brother, Perc."

"You're right – no need to sink to that level."

The older red head from the Gryffindor spluttered in protest and Harry snorted as he tried to hold back his laughter – not that he was the only one. By the time the two had finished, the whole Hall was either laughing or clapping at the twin's teasing.

_Oh yes_, Harry thought, still snickering, _If Naruto and Sasuke were here, I think we may have acquired two new brothers!_

After some of the laughter and clapping died down, during which Fred and George took bows, the twins linked Harry by the arms and went to take their seats in front of Hermione. Unfortunately, the twins never did anything normally. Therefore, it was totally unsurprising that Fred and George skipped, like five year olds, backed to their seats dragging a half laughing, half mortified Uchiha Harry along, eliciting much laughter from the student body.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_Wizards_, Harry decided, _are woefully unfit._

Okay, so Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry had to admit, had to have been one of the most abnormal, complicated and just plain whacked out places that Harry had ever seen before in his life. There were over one hundred and forty two staircases at Hogwarts in all shapes and sizes. Wide, sweeping, narrow, rickety – it didn't matter – if you've heard of them, there were there. And that didn't even include the ones that moved at random to other floors, or the ones that were usually stationary that somehow seemed to lead somewhere else on a certain day of the week. Then there were that many trick doors, sliding panels and illusionary steps, not to mention the ghosts, moving pictures ("Ok I can stand ghosts, but talking and moving portraits? That's just plain weird." –Harry) and an insane poltergeist that Harry was beginning to think that, after the end of this year, he was going to be an expert at recognising magic-based genjutsu. I mean, it was literally everywhere.

However, that still didn't excuse the fact that when they had to get from one class that was on the first floor, to the next class that was on the fourth, his new friends would be almost unconscious from the amount of huffing and puffing they were doing, where as Harry hadn't even worked up a sweat. It was terribly embarrassing to watch. I mean, even Sasuke could do better than that when he hadn't even started the ninja academy!

After the first week, Harry soon figured out why, especially after he'd studied his timetable. While there were a wide range of different classes, there were no 'muggle' classes. Not even gym class. Hell, most of the children from wizard families didn't even know what gym class was!

Fortunately for himself, there were plenty of opportunities for him to continue his daily training routines. The grounds of Hogwarts were vast, stretching for at least a mile or more of wide open space before it hit the lake or the Forbidden forest that the Weasley Twins had mentioned and Dumbledore had referred to in his end-of-feast speech. Although Dumbledore had said that the Forbidden forest was…well, forbidden, Harry soon realised that this was the perfect place to train. No one would spot him, seeing as the students tended to avoid it – except maybe the Weasley twins if the look Dumbledore had given to them was any indication – and, if what Harry gathered was correct, then there was potential training opportunities all over the place – perfect for Harry's use.

Using his ninja skills, Harry would wake just before dawn, sneak out to the edge of the forest, run a mile or two round the lake to warm up and would run through his Taijutsu, before starting on the two scrolls that Sarutobi had given to him.

The two scrolls were to focus Chakra, Harry soon realised – Tree Climbing and Water Walking – both of which needed fine chakra control to use. Well, unless he wanted to find himself flat on his back with concussion or to be plunged six foot into ice-cold water. He had decided to start with the Tree Climbing exercise first, seeing as he had at least got a solid surface to grip the Chakra through his feet to. The Water Walking, he suspected, would be a lot more difficult.

In doing this, he got his first proper introduction to the Giant man named Hagrid, although…not quite the way Harry would have wished. He had been so concentrated on managing to get past ten foot up a tree when he heard a loud "Oi, wha' d'yer think yer doin'?"

Harry, who by this point was flat on his back, covered in dirt and panting, found himself staring at impossibly large feet, following them up to the bushy face of the Gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid. Mentally he swore.

"I thought yer were told tha' the Forbidden Forest was off limits!" he growled, his bushy eyebrows frowning down at him. His eyes caught the marks criss-crossing their way up the tree. "This ain't no place ter be relaxin' Harry. Yer never know wha' kind o' creatures are in there – see?" he pointed to the marks. Harry coughed discretely as he carefully hid his kunai within his hip-pouch.

Harry rubbed the back of his head with a nervous laugh. "Uh…whoops?"

"Well, go on, git going – shoo, shoo!"

After that, Harry made sure that he kept a watch-out at all times to make sure he wasn't spotted again. Which was, as he soon found out, easier said than done in this place. Still, the Forbidden Forest was a perfect place for training, even if he didn't stray too far – at least, not just yet.

He almost felt sorry for Hagrid.

But that was nothing compared to what Harry had to go through to get to his newly marked out training grounds; to the owlery to send Manji (and later Hosenka) off with his many informative letters to his brothers; or even his classes! It seemed to take the students some time to get used to the fact that, yes, Harry was the Harry (Uchiha!) Potter and no, he wasn't dead. At first, Harry just ignored it, quite used to it from the stares some people back in Konoha gave the last Uchihas, but even when the first week was almost over, they were still at it! What was worse was that they weren't even trying to be subtle about it. In the end, Harry got one stare and prod 'to see if he really wasn't some kind of ghost' too many.

Well, Madam Pomfrey, the school's Medic-witch, was at least 70 per cent sure that the Ravenclaw student would wake up within a week or so without brain damage…

…Probably…

It wasn't that much of a wonder that they, unimaginatively, called him the Boy-Who-Lived after that, was it?

Then, there were the classes themselves. After studying at the school for a week, Harry had quickly picked out which of the magic classes he enjoyed and disliked with relative ease.

Charms, the class taught by Flitwick – the tiny teacher who had guided him round Diagon Ally, was rather interesting in Harry's opinion, if merely because of the effects (he could already see the pranks he could set up on Naruto-haters back home!). He soon found that magic wasn't all about waving his wand around and saying silly words. Like with Chakra, there was certain movements that needed to be followed to perfection, otherwise the spell wouldn't work. Harry was quite glad of this, as it gave the lesson an interesting twist, and a semi-familiar feel to them.

Then there was Herbology – who knew there were so many types of plant he had never heard of back in Konoha would make great poisons or antidotes? Although his first class could have gone better, especially since the plant tried to eat him (and ended up being blasted by a tiny Hosenka no Jutsu when no one was looking. There was no way that Harry was going to end up plant food! Funnily enough, Professor Sprout seemed to have no idea how the fire had started, especially when Harry had given her his most practised But-I-did-nothing-it-wasn't-my-fault-it-spontaneously-combusted look. But really, if he were back home, any judge would have marked him guilty for the look alone. These wizard civilians were completely oblivious, in Harry's opinion.)

By far his most favourite of the magic lessons was Transfiguration, ran by the teacher who had met them at the doors of Hogwarts – Professor McGonagall. The ability to change anything into something else? Oh, he was so there! Especially after seeing Dumbledore change the sofa into a Dog back at Konoha and seeing McGonagall change the desk into a pig. Think about all the things that he could make if he needed it while on a mission. New clothes, equipment, Dango – you know, the essentials. And all the chaos for his pranks! He was almost rubbing his hands in glee.

Surprisingly, or not, this was one of the Twins favourite classes as well, although goodness knows why…

During his first lesson, they were all given matchsticks to change into a needle after taking detailed notes on how the transfiguration should be done. McGonagall had gone around the class at the end inspecting their work. Most of the class, including Ron (which surprised him a little, especially when his clan were all wizards) hadn't made much progress on their matchsticks. When she came to Hermione, she had discovered the matchstick had gone all sliver and pointed and gifted the beaming, blushing girl with a rare smile. But when she got to Harry, her eyebrows almost mated with her hairline.

"Mr Uchiha," she said – to Harry's pleasure. It seemed his speech during the sorting feast had paid off. She picked up the matchstick Harry had been working on and held it up. It was metallic - check. It was sharp – check. But it was also about a foot long in size. "A good effort – but needles are not usually this size.

Harry was torn between rubbing his head and saying 'whoops!' and grimacing. In her hand was a transfigured senbon. Harry chose the former reaction. "Eh-heh – I guess I got a little carried away," he laughed in practised embarrassment.

Well, at least it would be useful if he was ever stuck in a tight spot without his kunai, he reasoned with himself.

Hermione glared at him for the rest of the day. However, Harry found the entire thing funny. If he could weather a Hyuga glare or even the infamous Uchiha Glare™ then he definitely wasn't going to be cowed by that!

By far the most useful to his profession would have been Defence Against the Dark Arts… key words there being 'would have'. Well, Harry found the subject very interesting after he had read from the books on the subject… except that, when it came to the class itself, the teacher seemed to be scared of his own shadow. He'd already managed to sneak up on the guy (completely accidentally of course, since he always walked quietly from his training.) and scared the living daylights out of him in the first class. It took Professor Quirrell the rest of the day to get over his faint and out the Hospital wing.

Still, he didn't know what it was exactly, but something was distinctly… off with that guy, and it definitely wasn't the garlic he kept shoved in that oversized turban of his. (Or at least, according to the twins, that was what was stuffed in there, since there was always a strong smell coming from the turban – something about wording away a Vampire). He resolved to keep an extra sharp eye on that one, just in case. Not that he seemed the type to cause any problems – except perhaps with his lessons that seemed more of a joke than anything. But then again, Itachi hadn't seemed like the type to just go out and slaughter his entire family and subject his brother and cousin to the Mangekyou Tsukuyomi, now did he?

Some of the classes, however, Harry found completely pointless. I mean, Astrology served no purpose but perhaps an interesting hobby. He never really believed in astrology anyway. And History of magic – ugh! Now, normally, Harry could see the point of learning the history. If they hadn't learned Shinobi History, Harry wouldn't have even known the existence of the Outside. But Professor Binns couldn't make it interesting at all. He almost found himself falling asleep. Hell, he almost wished Iruka-sensei were there to yell at him to wake him up!

And this was all because of a professor who was a ghost. You would have thought that would make the lesson more interesting, but noooo!

The only class Harry had yet to go to by Friday was 'Potions'. Harry was actually looking forward to this lesson, as it reminded him of some of his classes back at academy. It would definitely help with his shinobi training if he could make various Poisons and antidotes for battle use. However, Ron on the other hand, didn't seem quite so enthused. If he didn't know any better, he'd say everyone was a little intimidated, although Kami knows why.

According to Jordan, the teacher was a nightmare. Not even the Twins crossed this Snape guy unless they knew that they could get away with it 101 per cent.

Well, at least, he was looking forward to it. After all, he'd survived all his trainers and teachers back in Konoha. Who could possibly be worse than a chunin sensei or a paranoid Jonin tutor from the Uchiha who threatened to barbecue you if you messed up?

Snape, apparently.

Potions lessons took place in the cool, dark dungeon-like rooms, and Harry was glad he had had the time to get used to England's much cooler temperatures over the past week. The Dungeons were much cooler than the rest of Hogwarts and, if Harry hadn't got used to the outside temperatures from his training, he was sure he would have likely froze by this point. However, he managed to control his urge to shiver to warm himself up and instead looked around the dungeons, eyebrows shooting up to his hitae-ate when they landed on the jars of animal body parts. He felt Neville next to him shudder at the sight.

Professor Snape came into the classroom soon after, his cloak billowing out behind him impressively. If Harry didn't know any better, he'd have said that the cloak was possessed or was filled with Chakra, because there sure as hell wasn't any wind down there, no matter how draughty the dungeons might be, unless the guy was suffering from chronic farting-

No, wait – that was just disturbing!

_Intimidation tactics?_ Harry thought, in an effort to push out that particular disturbing line of thought out before he was even more scarred for life. _Why use that here, in a civilian school no less?_

"You are here," the teacher began, his voice low, almost hissing in sound, barely above a whisper. Harry could hear it alright, but most of the students had to strain their ears a bit to make sure they hearing everything. "To learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he stalked round the desk, bracing his hands on the table as he inspected them critically through glaring eyes. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle frame, brew glory, even stopper death— if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Hermione was on the edge of her seat – as if to prove to him that she was no dunderhead. Beside him, Harry could feel Ron glance at him, but Harry kept his eyes fixed on Snape.

However, Harry soon found himself staring into eyes dark as any on the Uchihas had been, yet colder than all the ice in Snow Country. They hardened as soon as they settled on Harry, who wondered what on earth he had done to get that kind of response. This was the first time he had met the man. However, Harry met the glare stare for stare.

The staring continued…

Snape's glare deepened.

Impressed by the level of his glare – it was close to Hyuga grade – Harry increased his from the all round Are-You-Trying-To-Annoy-Me Glare, to his I-Could-Beat-You-To-A-Pulp-And-Smile-All-The-While Glare.

Of course, you can imagine who was the first to break the staring competition.

_Oh, yeah!_ Harry mentally cheered. _Uchiha Harry 1, Bat-teacher 0!_

"Potter!" Snape barked suddenly. The entire class jumped.

Harry sighed, almost rolling his eyes at the use of that name. However, after correcting just about everyone – and when he said everyone, he meant everyone! – the entire week, he just couldn't be bothered to repeat himself a 1000th time. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"The Draught of Living Death," Harry said, without missing a beat.

Hermione and Ron shot him surprised looks, Hermione almost deflating from where her hand was already half in the air, while Ron almost crashed to the floor in shock. Snape's eyes widened ever so slightly, as if he hadn't expected Harry to give the correct answer, before narrowing. Harry could practically read 'Danger' coming from the man. "And where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Harry felt a slight stab of annoyance. Was Snape trying to insult his intelligence? Calming himself, Harry thought over the question. One Thousands Magical Herbs and Fungi popped up into his head. He leaned forwards, resting his chin against entwined fingers. "In the stomach of a goat. It'll save you from most poisons." Harry replied coolly in his best Uchiha-ice.

From the way they were speaking to each other, Harry was surprised it hadn't started to snow in the room yet. _Man, and I though Hyuga's uncle, Hiashi, and that moron Malfoy were bad_, he grumbled disdainfully.

Snape's lip curled into a snarl. "And tell me, Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and Wolfsbane?"

Harry knew that one too. "They're the same plant, just different names, which is also known as aconite." _Ha! Take that, Snape! No one messes with Uchiha Harry!_

Snape's face had darkened an almost blood red. Snarling, he rounded on the rest of the class, "Well?" he barked. "Why aren't you writing this down?" Then he looked back at Harry, a sneer written all over his face while his eyebrow ticked dangerously. "Well, it seems that even a Celebrity can read, eh, Potter?"

Harry felt his eyebrow twitch. _Ooooh, that does it,_ Harry thought darkly. Harry was seriously considering gutting the man on the spot. Or perhaps frying him, or maybe…

A mental grin that rivalled Naruto's Uzumaki Prankster grin popped into his head, despite his completely blank face. _Once I've finished with this guy, he won't know what hit him_! He grinned his own Uzumaki-style grin behind his steepled hands. Messing with this guy's head while he was at Hogwarts was going to be fun!

Now, all he'd have to do was wait for the right moment for Uchiha Harry-style payback…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey mate, you're a bit late, aren't you?" Ron greeted when Harry appeared after his usual workout – he had started on Water Walking today and had got completely soaked the first few times in the shallows of the lake. He had had to take a shower to get rid of the pond weed smell from him, otherwise, he would have beaten Ron to the table by now.

"Yo!" Harry greeted with a lazy two-fingered wave, ignoring the question as he dropped next to the redhead, piling his plate full of food. Well, Hogwarts food wasn't Ramen, or Dango, but it was quite good, especially after some hard training. Harry snatched up a newly baked roll, and sank his teeth into it. "Mmmmm!"

Ron laughed. "And you say I love eating"

"You do though, much more than me, I bet you even have dreams of eating food," Harry said, flashing the boy a smirk.

"Shush! You're supposed to keep those things quite!" Ron hissed at him, as if it was a secret as great as the Hokage being an avid Icha-Icha reader. He gave Harry (who was now choking on his bread) a surprised look. "How'd you know anyways?" Ron said quickly.

"You mean you do have dreams of just eating?" Harry asked incredulously as soon as he could breath again. He burst out laughing. "_Ne_, Ron-_kun_, I was kidding!" Harry choked out past his laughter.

Ron pouted, slumped in his seat, his face turning as red as his hair, "Oh, shut up"

Harry calmed himself down, except for the occasional snicker that escaped him. Ron glared, but it looked more funny than scary. Not even at Snape level. "Okay now that you're done laughing at me," Ron grumbled, "Are you ready for flying lessons this afternoon?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that! It's right after lunch isn't it?" At Ron's nodded, Harry grinned. "Heh, so I'm one step closer to seeing how this Quid-Itch thing works!"

"Dammit, Harry, Its pronounced QUIDDITCH!"

"Good morning, Ha…" Hermione, who had just arrived, a large book tucked under her arm, trailed off as she saw Ron almost jumping up and down on his seat, while Harry was grinning like an idiot, his hands behind his head, occasionally dodging a flailing arm with apparent ease.

"Hermione-_san_," Harry turned to her with a polite smile when Ron had run out of energy and had dropped back in his seat panting heavily. "_Ohayo_."

Hermione, despite her competitiveness when it came to spell work – especially in Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts – Harry's best subjects – and her occasional bossiness, was actually one of the few girls at Hogwarts that Harry could actually tolerate. (Hey, I mean, if he could become best friends with Hyuga despite a blood feud between the two families…). Perhaps it was because she reminded him so much of Neji and Iruka that first time they had met, but Harry didn't mind her too much. Or it might have been because Hermione was the only girl who hadn't been among those who stared at him during his first week until they found this was a dangerous hobby to indulge in. They weren't exactly friends, per say, but they were on speaking terms.

His red headed companion, on seeing Hermione, just frowned and grunted.

Ron, on the other hand…not so much.

"What's that book?" Harry asked, leaning over slightly to see the title half-hidden under her arm.

"Oh, this?" Hermione held up the book, "Its Quidditch Through the Ages. I borrowed it out of the library to see what it says about flying." He paused slightly before the word 'flying', something Harry easily picked up on.

"Something wrong, Hermione-_san_? You seem kind of nervous?" Harry asked.

"Umm, it's nothing really, just not to fond of flying very much." Hermione admitted, fidgeting slightly.

"Wait, you're scared of flying!" Ron practically shouted.

Harry bonked him on the head. "No need to yell it, _baka_."

Hermione flushed slightly, but picked up her usual bossy attitude. "No, I am not scared of flying, just… not fond of it"

"Yes! You are afraid of flying!" Ron said excitedly, finally finding something to use against Hermione.

"I am not afraid of flying! And I'll prove it to you!" Hermione yelled with a determined look in her eye before storming out of the Great Hall.

Ron had a smug look on his face and turned to look at Harry, who had a frown on his face.

"Yes! Finally some payback for all those lectures she has given me" Ron said. However Harry didn't look pleased at that.

"You know she only lectures you because she is trying to help" Harry said some what sternly.

Ron stared at Harry unbelievably, "Helping? You're kidding right? She just thinks she's better than everybody and likes to show off."

"Some day her advice could be useful, you know," Harry pointed out.

Leaving Ron to mouth wordlessly like a fish at Harry's words, Harry turned back to eating his breakfast, to see Neville frowning and muttering to himself, tinkering with something in his hands. As Neville's hands moved, he thought he could see a flash of a red gleam as the sun from the window struck something in his fingers.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Harry leaned towards the boy, looking over his shoulder. "_Ne_, Neville-_kun_, what you got there?"

Neville jumped a mile with a squawk, almost dropping the thing he was holding ands hand to juggle with it to stop it from hitting the floor. He spun round to look at Harry with wide eyes, his hand on his chest in an effort to stop his heart's rapid beating. "Oh, Harry, its you!" he squeaked. "You scared me!"

"Sorry, my bad. Didn't mean to scare you." Harry said apologetically.

"Oh, n-no, its okay," Neville laughed nervously.

"So…what you looking at?"

"Oh, this?" Neville asked, holding up what looked like a small, glass ball, only about half an inch long in diameter, which was currently filled with a sort of crimson smoke. "It's a Remembrall! Gran sent it to me. She knows I forget things you see. If it turns red, then it means you forgot something." Neville said, looking back at the glass ball filled with red smoke with a sigh. "Thing is, I can't remember what I forgot…"

"Well, that's…a bit unhelpful, huh?" Harry laughed slightly. Neville was normally an extremely shy boy who reminded him a lot for both Sasuke and Naruto – Sasuke because of his shy personality at home when it was just the two of them and Naruto because of all the trouble he seemed to unintentionally get into. "_Ne_, can I see" Harry asked peering at the ball curiously.

"Sure!" Neville nodded with a shy smile and handed the ball to Harry. "Maybe you forgot something too?"

Harry looked at the ball in his hands totally enthralled by the magical object, which had now cleared of crimson smoke. Of course he has seen his fair share of strange objects – those Portkeys being prime examples - but this is the first time he had an explanation for the object that wasn't about to drop him from a great hight.

"Hey, Potter what you got there?" a sneering voice behind him said. Harry sighed and turned ever so slightly to face Malfoy, flanked by his two goons.

Now, in the Shinobi world, there were two kinds of people who were considered weak of fools. The first type were cowards, the type who would run away from anything, and abandon their companions or mission at the slightest bit of danger. Then there were the type that could not seem to learn from what they had experienced and, like an idiot, continue to face someone when they were clearly outmatched without having trained themselves to become better than their opponent first. It seemed Malfoy had this rather annoying trait.

However, Harry was in a good mood, so he decided to humour the brat.

"It's considered polite to ask before you take something," Harry said, absently dodging the grab, when Malfoy tried to snatch the Remembrall from Harry's hand.

"Huh?" Malfoy said intelligently, making another vain attempt to grab the trinket in Harry's hands.

"And I thought we had already been through this that my name is Uchiha, Malfoy." Harry elaborated still playing with Neville's Remembrall as if he hadn't moved at all.

"What are you talking about Potter? Your parents were Potters, so your name is Potter. And the Professors call you Potter." Malfoy sneered once again trying to grab the Remembrall.

"Actually, only Snape calls me Potter, And it's not Mr. Potter isn't totally wrong, I just rather would be called by my clan name, Uchiha." Harry explained, dodging another grab from Malfoy.

"Look Potter, I really don't care… AND WILL YOU JUST GIVE ME THE STUPID BALL!" Malfoy said, yelling out the last part thus gaining the attention of the teachers and other students. Harry fought back a wide grin. He enjoyed getting under Malfoy's skin, it was just too easy!

"Nothing wrong here, I hope?"

A shiver suddenly ran up Malfoy's back and he spun round to see Professor McGonagall looking down on him sternly. After Malfoy had mumbled something unintelligibly and stalked off, followed by his companions, Harry turned back to Neville, who was looking at Harry with a mixture of shock and appreciation, as he carefully despotised the Remembrall into Neville's outreached hands.

"Um…thanks…you know, for not letting him get it," he shuffled. "I mean, it was a present and all…but you didn't have to…"

Harry just smiled. "Don't worry about it, Neville-_kun_."

On a whim, he ruffled Neville's hair, receiving a squawk from the boy. Harry just beamed.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Flying lessons. Harry had been intrigued by them ever since the Weasley's had spoken to him about Quid-Itch, which he insisted on calling it, since it seemed to drive Ron crazy ever since the train-ride to Hogwarts.

…**Flashback…**

"_So, let me get this straight," Harry said slowly. "This Quid-Itch is a game, where the players throw a red ball through one of three hoops, while dodging the black balls, played fifty foot in the air, on broomsticks?"_

_Harry and his new friends Fred, George, Ron and Jordan were all seated in the last compartment of the train on their way to Hogwarts. After Hermione and Neville had continued on their search to find the illusive pet toad, their conversation had changed subject once again – this time to something called Quidditch, a Wizarding sport that all four Wizard students seemed fanatical about. Harry, on the other hand, was still trying to sort out the gist of the game that seemed to have no logical rules that Harry had, as of yet, determined. Especially when it seemed that the point system seemed to mean almost nothing if you failed to catch something called a snitch. Really, how on earth could that be called a game? However, the wackiness of it had certainly caught his interest, even if it was just trying to work out what on earth his new companions were talking about!_

"_It's 'Quidditch', Harry!" Ron said in exasperation, as if it were a crime not to know how it was pronounced. _

_Still, it wasn't that Harry __couldn't__ pronounce it. It had soon turned into a game after Harry had mispronounced it innocently enough the first two times and Ron had reacted quite explosively. _

"_That's what I said. Quid-Itch," Harry said, blinking innocently._

"_Gaaaaaaah!" Ron howled, almost pulling his hair out. "Its called Quidditch! Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch!"_

"_I think Ronniekins' brain is melting," George noted with Pseudo-seriousness, nodding over to his younger brother who was still chanting out the name of the sport. _

_Fred blinked at his twin innocently, although the expression was ruined completely by the odd glittering in his eye that rivalled Dumbledore's. "Ron had a brain?" _

"_FRED!"_

…**Present…**

Harry chuckled in remembrance. Yes, Harry was quite interested to see how this flying-on-a-broom worked – especially after he had finally been able to hang upside down on the highest tree-branch at the edge of the Forbidden forest by the chakra-charged balls of his feet only a few days previously. So when the poster appeared in the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry decided that he would put his incredulous-ness behind him about the whacked out game and check it out, even if it was just to learn how to defy gravity one step further.

The only down side would be that he would be spending an entire lesson with that Malfoy brat. Oh well…

When they arrived at the appointed time, Harry ignored the Slytherins that were also there. Malfoy and his goons kept their distance, since it was, by now, widely known around the school that Harry was handy with feet and fists, never mind the nice stock of spells he knew. What they didn't know was that Harry always had a stock of weapons hidden away on his person. He was sure that, if they did know, his Shuriken and kunai would have been on the list of Filch's banned items – if they didn't think they were just 'Muggle toys'.

The flying lesson had started well, but a moment of panic on Neville's part caused him to fall off his broom and break his wrist, the crack quite audible and almost everyone had winced, if not from the noise, then from sympathy. Harry remembered when he had broken his wrist once training when he was five and grimaced slightly with empathy, but there was nothing he could about it, especially since he had no Medic-nin skills. Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix it in no time.

However, now that Madam Hooch was gone…

"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Malfoy sneered through his laughter.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Parvati, one of the Gryffindor girls, snapped.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl, said. "Never thought you'd like fat little cry babies-"

"Parkinson," Harry snarled, glaring up at her through dark bangs. "If you don't want to follow Neville-_kun_ to the hospital wing, you'd better shut up."

Parkinson immediately froze, a look of fear passing over her face. If there was one thing that Harry knew the Slytherins had as well as ambition and slyness, it was a good sense of self-preservation.

"Look!" Malfoy said, picking up Neville's Remembrall. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's Gran sent him."

Well, almost all of them.

"Hand it over, Malfoy," Harry said, his eyes narrowing. Since meeting up with Naruto, that tolerance for bullies he had had before had plummeted way into the minuses.

Malfoy smirked and grabbed the nearest broom. "You want it? Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry swore and made a grab for the broom, but only managed to catch a few twigs from the broom-end. "_Chikusho_," Harry snarled, making to pull out his kunai, already contemplating the calculations for where to hit the pale boy without actually killing him, yet causing as much pain as possible. However, he dismissed the idea – too many others involved, and instead snatched up the broom he had been practising on.

"_Kusoyaro_," he growled and took off, shooting like a javelin towards the bulls-eye. "If I pull this off, I think I'll kill the moron!"

That started the chase that would be talked about for days to come. Both boys flew at top speed around the castle, through it, and up and down. Finally, Harry decided enough was enough. Jumping up slightly so his feet hooked around the broom, he pulled upwards, causing the broom to flip over Malfoys head. He dipped slightly and pulled up, causing Malfoy to make a hasty stop before he crashed into him. Harry grabbed Malfoy's broom mid turn, swinging him to halt. Harry's eyes met Malfoy's, who was suddenly looking far less confident.

"No bodyguards up here to save you, Malfoy," Harry smirked, although his frowning emerald eyes blazed coldly. "Are you sure you want me to make you return the ball?"

Malfoy's pupils contracted slightly at what seemed to be the promise of a lot of pain to come that seemed to flash in the genin's eyes, but his face purpled and he pulled back the hand that held the Remembrall in his hand and hurled it downward. "Catch it if you can!"

"Kuso!" If that thing, as fragile as it was, hit the ground, it would definitely smash into pieces he was sure would be easily scattered to the winds. Without even pausing to think, Harry pushed Malfoy's broom away and bolted after the object. Malfoy could wait.

The wind flashed bast his face at a speed matching the Gringotts carts, vertically, his eyes narrowed in concentration, his hand stretching out to grab it. the ground was jumping up to meet him, the tiny ball just barely out of reach.

"Just…a little…more!"

Fifty metres, forty, thirty, twenty, ten –

Fingers closed around cold glass.

"Yatta!" Harry cried. However, his joy almost immediately plummeted. "Chikusho!" There was almost no way he'd be able to pull out of this dive!

Unless…

He leaned back and threw his head forwards, as if trying to head-butt the broom, using his forward momentum and sudden shift in weight to throw him and his broom down resulting in a quick front flip, ending with the broom facing upward, Harry gripping it with Chakra-charged feet. His hair brushing the ground as he pulled himself back onto the broom as it slowed to a halt in front of the class. The Gryffindors stared in shock, then cheered. Ron whistled in admiration.

"HARRY POTTER!" the woman's voice carried across the field. Harry turned to see a very angry McGonagall storming across the field towards them.

_Oh Kuso!_

"Never – in all my time at Hogwarts-" Her face was slack with shock, but her eyes were glinting with more fire than Harry's Gokakyu no jutsu. "How dare you – might have broken your neck-" she glared down at Harry, who found himself almost shrinking back. Was it his imagination, or was she literally wreathed in flame?

"Uchiha! Follow me, now!"

Somewhere close by, Harry could hear Malfoy laughing and somewhere in the back of his mind #Harry imagined himself stringing the boy up by his ankle somewhere – preferably somewhere in the middle of the Forbidden forest. The Gryffindors crowded round, trying to explain what had happened but she paid them no attention.

"All of you stay put!" she snapped before turning back to the castle and, with an angry gesture, motioned for him to follow. Harry fell into step behind her, his face schooled neutral as he followed her into the castle and up the stairs.

McGonagall stopped outside of a classroom and knocked. Without waiting for an answer, she opened the door and poked her head inside. Harry could hear her muffled voice say: "excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"

The picture of a cane came into his mind. However, he shook off the thought, closing his eyes. If that was his punishment, so be it.

However, when a second pare of footsteps joined McGonagall's, Harry opened his eyes once more to find himself looking at a burly-looking boy several years older than himself, with no cane in sight. Harry blinked. _So that's Wood?_ He thought in wonder as McGonagall motioned for the both of them to follow her, the older boy subtly shooting curious glances at him._ But why…?_

After barking at Peeves, who was writing rude words on the blackboard, to get out, McGonagall motioned for them to enter inside, slamming the door behind her. She turned to look at the two of them – Wood, who was looking both confused and foreboding, and Harry, whose face was schooled into an emotionless mask.

"Uchiha, this is Oliver Wood," she told Harry sternly. She turned to Wood. "Wood – I've found you a Seeker."

Harry was too shocked to keep up the emotionless mask. The entire school was shaken to the foundations by a loud cry.

"What!"

"NANIIIIIII?"

Of all the things Harry expected to have happened – being pulled back to Konoha, a discipline, hell, even getting lines, becoming the youngest person to play the most important roll in the Quidditch game in a century wasn't on his list.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Having your last meal before you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of?"

Harry stopped eating, before turning round to look at Malfoy coolly. Yes, like usual, Crabbe and Goyle once more flanked the blond. It was starting to get predictable. Harry just turned back to his dinner, ripping the small roll in half.

"Looking a lot more confidant now you know you've got back up, don't you?" Harry added, glancing round at him from the corner of his eye. "Its not very endearing, you know."

Malfoy looked almost murderous. Looking over at his shoulder at the teachers' table, where he professors were all busy eating or talking, Malfoy leaned closer with a sneer, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'd take you any time on my own," he hissed. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only – no contact – if you can do that, Potter, the way you fight like a filthy Muggle."

Harry was thinking about telling him that he knew exactly what would happen if he accepted – after all, he was a ninja, he wasn't stupid, when the proverbial light bulb switched on. Harry's face broke into a devilish grin. Oh, this would be such a good way to get back at Malfoy for Neville and that laughter back on the Quidditch pitch that would be even more satisfying than tying the guy up in the middle of the Forbidden forest.

"What's the matter?" Malfoy was saying, having only taken a slight step back as Harry stood. "Never heard of a-"

"ALL RIGHT MALFOY, YOU WANT A DUEL, YOU GOT ONE!" Malfoy jumped a mile as Harry suddenly shouted in a way that rivalled Naruto. The entire hall seemed to fall silent. "I HARRY UCHIHA-POTTER, ACREPT THE CHALLENGE MADE BY YOU, DRACO MALFOY. AS THE CHALLENGER, STATE THE PLACE AND TIME!"

What little colour Malfoy had in his face drained away as everyone turned to look at them. However, Harry wasn't finished with Malfoy, quickly gripping his wrist as he attempted to back off, thrusting it down by their sides. Harry smirked at the other boy. Malfoy flinched, whether from pain at Harry's grip or whatever he could see on Harry's face, he wasn't sure.

"Well?" he said clearly, no longer needing to yell at the top of his lungs, seeing as the entire hall had gone deathly silent. You could have heard a pin drop. "You made the challenge. You're not going to back out now after that, are you?"

"What is the problem here, Mr Uchiha?"

Harry glanced round slightly to see Professor Dumbledore, closely followed by McGonagall, who was frowning disapprovingly, and Snape, who was glaring darkly at Harry (who wondered if Snape was practising those glares to use on him. He was sure the intensity had upped a notch).

Harry turned to look at them a little more, Harry let go of Malfoy's arm, since Malfoy wouldn't be able to leave anyway without pinpointing guilty to himself, interested in what the Slytherin would do to get out of this. He started to slink back and Harry quickly pinned him to the spot by treading on his robes as the teachers finally got to them. "Malfoy challenged me to a duel, I accepted." He twirled his hitae-ate tails around a finger idly. "Do you have a special room for that here or something?"

"I'm afraid that duelling is not allowed, Mr Uchiha," Dumbledore said, looking over his glasses at the two boys seriously, except the effect was ruined by the fact his eyes were twinkling in amusement.

"Its not?" Harry asked, making his voice sound surprised. "Well, then there wasn't much point in challenging me, unless," he looked round at Malfoy, who audibly gulped, "he had something else in mind…?"

Everyone looked at Malfoy, who, it seemed, had at least a little backbone after all, since he kept his mouth clamped shut. Now, Harry was no Ibiki, but he did know a little when it came to making someone talk. Harry let a little murderous intend swirl round him as he cocked his head to one side and pulled out a kunai, licking it for effect with a slightly sadistic smirk on his face. If it were another shinobi, they would have recognised the psychological warfare instantly and just do something twice as gruesome in return.

Malfoy on the other hand…was not another Shinobi.

"'tlethimhurtmeeeeeeeee!" Malfoy wailed

The teachers looked around, trying to work out what had caused that reaction. However, Harry had already hidden away his kunai and now had an expression of pure, innocent confusion on his face, as if wondering the same thing, although inside he was grinning from ear to ear. "Uh, what's he say? I didn't catch that…"

The teachers looked back round again at Malfoy, who stared at Harry with wide eyes as he glared once more.

"I wanted to get him in trouble by making him go to the trophy room so Filch could catch him," he threw himself at Dumbledore's feet. "Please don't let him hurt me!" Malfoy choked.

McGonagall looked at him with disapproval. Dumbledore looked amused. Snape was, as usual, glaring at Harry.

"Ahem," Dumbledore said. "There will be no duel, Mr Uchiha. Mr Malfoy will, however, have to do detention for trying to get a fellow student in trouble."

"Aw, man," Harry sighed with mock disappointment as Malfoy was made to follow a scowling McGonagall. "And that duel sounded interesting too."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Ready?"

A smirk. "A stupid question, dear brother of mine."

"What about you? Are you ready?"

An amused look. "Psh – I was born ready."

It was a bright and early Halloween morning. The sun hung low in the sky, having just risen a few hours before. The sky seemed to be colourless, just barely a light blue. A few clouds rolled by. The sun was only just starting to show through the crack in the curtains.

Ron was sound asleep when the curtains drew back slightly, letting in the warm light of the sun. He squirmed, attempting to hide his face under his pillow. However, he wasn't allowed to drift off once more, as a sharp prod in his side jerked him awake again.

"Hmmm… go away… five more minutes… Mmm…" mumbled Ron. He batted the thing away. The poking didn't stop. Finally Ron gave up and turned over. Groggily, he opened his eyes-

And promptly screamed, toppling over backwards on the bed, landing with a hard thump on the floor, scrambling away as he gaped in horror at the…thing in front of him.

The noise was enough to wake the entire dormitory. Seamus, Dean and Neville all scrambled groggily from behind their curtains to see what on earth was happening.

Seamus looked down at Ron groggily. "Ron what's – HOLY COW!" he cried when he saw just what it was that caused Ron to scream.

"W-what is that thing?" Neville whimpered, staring at the creature

It was a demonic creature, at least as tall as the roof. It had blank, staring eyes that seemed to stare at everything and nothing, rolling around in a deformed face with tusk-like fangs curving out of a gaping mouth, its lolling tongue flicking over a blood-stained chin. Blood seemed to drip from the fangs and down its face. Its body was tall and deformed. Swaying as it moved forwards.

"Rooooooooon," the creature wailed, sounding as though there were many voices talking as one. "Your time is nigh, your fate is ours!"

"Waaaaa! Its gonna kill me, save me save me!"

"Where's Harry?" Neville asked. Of course, Harry always seemed to be able to stand up to bullies in his eyes, so it was only natural he look for him now. However, Harry's bed was empty, the covers thrown carelessly as if he'd been dragged from his bed.

"No! That thing got Harry!"

"Rooooooon!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Suddenly, the creature that had been advancing on them suddenly burst out into peels of laughter that seemed to somehow not go with what their eyes were seeing.

Suddenly, the creature pulled off its face and the cloak parted, revealing, not a gruesome body, but three boys sitting on each other's shoulders. The boys in the dormitory all looked cross between relief and annoyance at just who the three were. Fred gave a high five to George, who was sitting on his brother's shoulders, while Harry was beaming, the demon face in one hand and the cloak in the other as he perched on top of them both. All three were grinning like maniacs as they laughed at the completely confused boys sitting, or lying in Ron's case, across the dorm.

"You should have seen your faces," Fred howled with laughter

Ron just stared in shock. "What-why—" he stammered, near speechless.

Harry just grinned, throwing the demon-face to the boy. "Happy Halloween!"

Ron just blenched at the face now staring up at him on his lap. "Harry, I'm gonna kill you," he groaned and fainted.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Sorry about that Ron," apologised Harry with a slight snicker later on that morning. He had to make sure Ron wasn't angry about the stunt Harry and the Weasley twins pulled that morning - Although it was funny to hear Ron shriek like a girl. It was even more memorable than that time he had managed to die Neji's hair bright pink. Harry would remember that for a long time.

"It's okay," said Ron. He shot a mock glare at Harry. "But next year, pick someone else to scare the pants off!"

"_Hai_, _hai_."

"Huh?"

Harry sighed. "Never mind…"

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practising!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. The two boys turned back to the tiny teacher. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too— never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

Today, since it was Halloween, Flitwick had decided that, as a treat, he would teach them all how to do a levitation charm. Everyone was very much looking forwards to it, ever since Flitwick had sent Trevor zooming round the classroom like a bird on their first day. Harry had partnered with Neville, and Dean had partnered with Seamus. Ron, on the other hand, was forced to partner with Hermione, who still disliked the girl.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry could hear Hermione saying in annoyance after Ron had, for the twentieth time, swung his arm like a windmill trying to get the feather to rise. "Its Win—_gar_—dium Levi—o—sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

Ron glared at her and snarled, "You do it, then, if you're so clever."

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "_Wingardium Leviosa!"_

Their feather slowly rose into the air, hovering a good four feet off their desk. "Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

Ron looked just about ready to stuff the feather right in her mouth to see if it would shut her up.

By the end of Charms, Ron was in a foul mood.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron mumbled darkly as the boys walked through the crowded corridors. "She's a nightmare, honesty."

"Ron, she was only trying to –huh?" Harry cut off as someone pushed passed him. Harry just caught sight of their face as they fled. His eyes widened. It was Hermione. "Hey, wait, Hermione-_san_!" However, she had already disappeared out of sight. Harry turned to give Ron one of his glares, which Ron flinched from. "Nice going, _baka_!"

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed that she's got no friends."

Harry just glared at him. "_Baka_."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry was in a pretty bad mood. After all, Ron had just reduced that poor girl to tears. Was it any different from what people used to do to Naruto? He was tempted to go find her, but after hearing she was hiding away in a toilet – and not just any toilet, but a girl's toilet - he decided against it. After all, he wasn't a pervert and after getting used to his small band of Harry-fan-club girls, Harry's self-preservation had him stay away from any such things that would associate him with having an interest one of them. It was literally a death sentence for an Uchiha.

However, by the time the Halloween feast had began and Hermione still hadn't shown up, he was about to resign himself to his fate and go find her when Quirrell burst into the hall, the wide doors almost slamming into the walls. "Trrrrrroooooollllllll," he was screaming. "In the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons!" everyone fell deathly silent, staring at the man in shock. He stood in the middle of the room.

"Thought you'd like to know…"

And he fell flat on his face in a dead faint.

Silence. The only thing Harry could think was _Dammit, when I said I wanted to fight a troll back then, I was only joking._

Then-

Panic broke out throughout the hall, screams and shouts – it was a complete uproar. It too several purple firecrackers from the end of Dumbledore's wand for the silence to return.

Calmly, Dumbledore said, "Prefects, lead your houses back to their dormitories. The teachers will follow me to the dungeons."

It was about half way back to the Gryffindor dormitories when Harry froze, a sudden thought creeping into his mind. Loudly he swore.

"Whats wrong?" Ron asked, seeing that Harry had suddenly stopped.

"_Chikusho_! Its Hermione – she doesn't know about the troll!"

"Oh bloody hell! – Percy had better not see us!"

He and Ron hung back as the crowds of Gryffindors followed the prefects back to the dormitories by slipping behind a suite of armour and set off in the opposite direction towards the toilet that Hermione was rumoured to have been hiding out in. At one point, they thought they had been caught when a Snape stalked passed, but he missed them as he strode purposefully passed the statue they had hid behind, not even looking their way.

"Odd – I thought the teachers were meant to head to the dungeons," Harry murmured to himself as the slipped off once again. "Isn't that the way to the third floor?"

Something was odd there – there was no way to get to the dungeons that way. However, he'd save that for another time. Hermione could be in trouble.

There was a low shuffling sound and a deep rumbling grunt ahead of them and a foul stench made Harry want to gag, having to pull up his T-shirt's wide collar up to his nose to stop his eyes from watering. However, Harry only caught the end of what looked like a large log disappear into one of the rooms. Ron was about to suggest locking it into a room it had gone into, when Harry suddenly realised he could feel Hermione's chakra signature in the room with the troll. Ignoring Ron, Harry ran into the room, and took stock of the situation as he had been taught to do, even as Hermione screamed and Ron followed him through the door.

The troll was at least eleven-foot tall; its knobbly, dull, granite-grey heads almost brushed the ceiling. Its legs, thick as tree-trunks crunched the tiles of the floor. Piggy, beady black eyes were fixed on the brunette, while a wooden club the size of a log dragged along the floor in both of their thick, clawed hands.

Make that serious trouble.

Harry didn't even pause, he ran into the room, drawing out a kunai from the pouch within his open robes as he darted forwards. He leapt at the wall, foot barely touching it as he pushed himself off again, using the momentum to deliver a kick that would have sent a grown man flying if it hand landed. But the Troll didn't even look fazed, except to pause in its advance of getting to Hermione. Harry flipped away, teeth gritted as his leg throbbing painfully, as if it had struck a brick wall. However, he ignored it as lobbed his kunai at the creature, which simply bounced of with a metallic 'ching'.

"Kuso!"

The troll turned round, blinking stupidly at Harry as he landed to a skidded halt five foot away, another kunai ready in defensive position. Glaring at the troll, he contemplated using the Gokakyu no jutsu, but instantly dismissed the idea. The area was too confined. If he tried that in here, he'd probably hit Hermione and Ron as well. Harry swore.

"Ron, Hermione – get out of here!" Harry yelled, and, without waiting for a response, shot forwards once more, throwing the kunai at one of the place Harry could find that didn't look as though it was made of rock – his eye. The kunai hit true, the creature howled in pain and rage as it swung its club viscously at Harry, who dodged the log-like club as it crashed down to the floor. Tiles exploded, dust rising in clouds.

Harry flipped out of the way of another strike, quickly trying to formulate a plan. If they didn't beat this thing soon, it was likely that they'd die here right now.

Harry drew out a bunch of shuriken and skidded to a halt as they went flying, speeding towards the troll. The creature followed the objects around it with its one good eye, not seeing the strings that attached them to Harry – mouth, left hand, right hand. The shuriken wrapped around the troll, wrapping the wire-like strings round it.

_**Sofushasan no Taichi!**_

Harry tugged. The monsters arms snapping to its sides. It struggled, even as the wires bit deep into its thick hide. Hit howled, yanking its arms outwards and swayed its body round so hard it sent Harry flying from his potion. It was only because of a well-timed flip that Harry wasn't smashed into the wall. The troll bellowed as it thrashed this way and that, its arm that had come free when Harry was forced to let go of one of the Sofushasan no Taichi strings to avoid an up close and personal meeting with the wall swinging its club like a maniac. Harry jumped again and again, trying to avoid getting crushed and unable to stop long enough to send more shuriken flying.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The arm swung, but the club was wrenched from its grasp, hovering eleven foot in the air.

Harry's eyes widened and flickered towards the sound, his eyes landing on Ron, who was standing, wand outstretched towards the log-like club now hovering towards the ceiling. His eyes flashing with determination and complete and utter shock on his face. Determination to aid Harry and survive, shock that the spell, which he hadn't even been able to get a feather to rise that morning, had actually worked. Hermione, dusty and scared, sat covered in tile dust, but looked as though she was just as shocked that Ron had listened to her.

Harry smirked, dropping from his last leap and flung out more shuriken, which wrapped securely round the creature's arms, binding them to its sides. With lightning speed, he ran through a list of seals. Now that the wires were there, there was less of a chance the flames would strike his friends, as they would flow down the wires like electricity. A deep breath through teeth still clenched around the wires.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!**"

The fire ran down the wires, causing the troll to howl in pain. Somehow, he already knew the flames wouldn't effect that hide, but it would cover up what he would do next.

He leapt forwards, running up the troll's back and onto its head, while the Troll writhed in pain and fought to get out of the Sofushasan no Taichi wires, using one of them to swing down in front of its neck. Pulling out a kunai. With a swift move, the kunai slashed through the creature's soft throat, splattering blood across Harry's face. Its eyes bulged, its hands yanking from the wires with inhuman last strength as it clawed at his throat, knocking Harry away. He tumbled to the ground, rolling across the smashed floor to a crouch, panting heavily, blooded kunai held in front of him, ready to strike again.

There was a choking sound from behind him and the club that had been hanging in the air suddenly dropped, crashing against the flailing monster's skull with a sickening crunch. The Troll let out a gurgling sigh from the gash at its neck and fell forwards, crashing to the ground, dust rising from the force of its fall. The white dust began to turn red as the troll's blood splattered across destroyed tiles.

Harry stumbled to his feet, knowing he would probably be feeling the bruises in the morning. "Ron…Hermione…are you…alright?"

Ron was staring at his own wand, as if it was something alien. Hermione was pale, almost slumped against the wall as she stared at the mass of troll in front of her. However, closed her eyes for a moment and bit her lip, sucking in a breath as she stumbled to her feet.

"Is it…is it…dead?" she whimpered, her eyes searching out Harry, who wiped his kunai on the troll's burnt and frayed rags.

"Well, it ain't going to be attacking us anytime this lifetime," Harry managed a smile, although inside he was feeling ice cold, the blood feeling slick on his hands. He took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart and the trembling of his limbs from exhaustion and… shock, he guessed numbly.

Mere seconds later, Professor McGonagall burst into the room, closely followed by Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell whimpered and slid to the floor at the mess. Snape's eyebrow shot up to his hairline at the slow trickle of blood spilling from the Troll's gaping wound and McGonagall-

"What on earth were you thinking of?" McGonagall exploded, "You were lucky you weren't killed!"

Harry looked around to see if the others were going to say something. However, Ron was still staring at his wand, that was till raised in the air as if he was some kind of statue, while Hermione still looked a little too shaken to do anything by shiver.

That's when he saw it. As Snape shifted, his robes parted slightly. There on his leg, covered in blood, was a wound that made him look as though he got on the wrong side of an Inuzuka nin-dog. Suddenly, robes swept across his leg, covering it. The Potions master shot him a death-glare. Harry's eyes narrowed in return. What the hell was he up too?

"Ensuring our safety," Harry said in icy calm, his eyes fixing back onto the teacher, pushing the mystery to the back of his mind for now. "Considering the situation and how outclassed we were that thing was far too dangerous to be left alive inside a school – even if it is a Wizarding school."

His emotionless tone words seemed to pull Ron back to reality, who looked as though he'd only just realised the teachers were there. The tone also seemed to perturb the rest of them

"Why didn't you wait for us?" McGonagall said. "Or better yet, what are you doing here at all? You're supposed to be in your dorms."

"I didn't know you were coming, and if we hadn't gone here, Hermione might have died," Harry snapped, nodding towards the girl who was hovering just behind him. "She wasn't with us in the Great Hall, and I was afraid the troll might find her. And I was right."

McGonagall opened her mouth as if to yell at them some more, but Harry shot her the darkest glare out of the Uchiha Glares, which only looked more dark when his face was still splashed with troll blood and she went silent almost at once. "Look, back home, I have been told that a cousin of mine once said 'those who do not follow the rules are no better than trash. But those who abandon their friends," Harry looked up at them, his emerald eyes dark. "They… are even worse than trash'. And I believe that. So, if you're gonna to take points, then do it – following the rules just to be safe, while someone else might get killed when they could have been saved isn't something I can just do. I'll take whatever punishment there is."

(CK - yes, I know Kakashi says this, but if you haven't read Kakashi Gaiden in the manga, see 'Chosha's Notes' at the end of the chapter to see what I mean.)

McGonagall's mouth pursed, before saying stiffly. "The three of you had better go back to the Gryffindor tower. The other students are finishing the feast there."

Harry nodded sharply, the other two murmuring a soft "Yes Professor," and following, leaving three disturbed and perplexed teachers behind with the dead troll.

Just as they rounded the corner, Harry felt a flash of malevolent chakra that made him freeze, his scar suddenly tingling underneath his hitae-ate.

What the-?

Harry spun round, looking back the way they had come. However, there was nothing there to inform Harry about anything that could have caused it.

"Harry, mate…?'

"Huh?" Harry turned back round to look at Ron.

"Uh, there's not another one of those thing, is there?" he asked, looking over Harry's shoulder.

Harry flashed the boy a smile. "Heh, don't worry about it, Ron-kun. Its nothing." _I hope._

Ron sighed in relief and started down the Hall again, Harry striding to catch up. They were silent as they walked, Harry brooding over what he had seen and felt. Finally-

"Did you mean that, what you said back there?"

"Hm?" Preoccupied, Harry turned to look at Hermione, who was avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Did you mean it when you said… you'd take punishment even if you had to break the rules to… save someone."

"Sure I did. I don't say it if I don't mean it." He smiled slightly. "Besides, even one life is important. I won't allow my friends to die. Especially not when you remind me of my friends back home!"

Hermione looked up at him with sparkling eyes, and looked to Ron nervously. Ron turned his head away, a very tiny blush on his cheeks as he rubbed his nose. "Yeah. And, you know…if it weren't for all your nagging…I wouldn't have been able to do that spell."

Harry grinned. "Told you you'd need her advice one day!" he turned back to Hermione while Ron flushed scarlet. "Come on, let's go, Hermione-san"

Hermione beamed and nodded, joyful tears springing to her eyes. "Sure!"

From that day onwards, Uchiha Harry had one more person, along with the Weasley twin's Ron and Neville, to add to his newly growing list of precious people. A rather idyllic ending to a rather stressful day, right?

Still, it looks like the Shinobi wasn't the only ones to hide his own secrets here at Hogwarts. Something was going on here. And whatever it was, Harry was going to find out.

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

Kun – used between male students

San – Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms

Ohayo – good morning

Chikusho – damn, dammit

Kusoyaro - bastard

Kuso – a swear word

Nani - what

Hai - yes

Baka – idiot

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu – fire release: Grand Fireball Technique

Sofushasan no Taichi – Manipulating Windmill Triple Blades

**Chosha's Notes**

Well, another chapter done! I hoped you liked it!

Oh yeah, as promised, I'll explain that thing I meant when I said a cousin had said something Kakashi tends to say a lot. Basically, if you read the Kakashi Gaiden in the Manga, you find out just who he gets that saying from. Basically, a teammate named Uchiha Obito tells him that after Rin, their other teammate, is caught by Iwa-nin during the Iwa-Konoha war. They ended up going to save her, abandoning the mission. They manage to, but Obito ends up getting killed in a jutsu-based landslide saving Kakashi, who lost his eye to save him from the nin they were fighting. Rin transplants Obito's newly developed Sharingan eye to Kakashi. But that's another story. So yeah, the saying actually came from Uchiha Obito. Harry was probably still at Godric's hollow when Obito died (I think Yondaime was made Hokage soon after), so I'm saying that he heard it mentioned by someone who knew him.

Anyways, other than that, what did you think of the chapter. I have to admit, though, that Harry did do a lot of swearing, ne?

Oh yes, the results to that little poll I gave out. I wanna thank everyone who answered. At the last count I did before I began writing this chapter, here are the results!

Gryffindor: 30

Hufflepuff: 22

Ravenclaw: 13

To everyone who reviewed after that time, I'll just say that I did read each and every review and I enjoyed hearing your reasoning. If you want the main reasons as to why Harry'd make a good Gryffindor still, then its best summed up by the anonymous reviewer dm, who made some very good points.

Anyways, just one last thing left to do!

**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter!**

**Harry**: Woah! This Quidditch thing ain't half bad! Christmas is coming and-

**Naruto**: Niisan!

**Harry**: Huh? Naruto? Sasuke?

**Sasuke**: what? You think you can steal all the fun, Aniki? Next episode: Philosopher's Stone: Second Seal – Kyuka. Look forwards to it!

**Harry**: Oi! That's my line!

**Naruto**: and watch out for the special Omake Teatre: Uzuchiha Gaiden addition!

**Harry**: Naruto!

Kyuka means holiday (i.e. vacation). Anyway, until next time – Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	8. Chapter 7: Philosophers Stone: 2nd Seal

Chosha's Notes 

Hey there! Welcome back everyone. I'm glad you all reviewed last time, and I'm sorry I couldn't place Harry into the house you wanted if you wanted anything other than Gryffindor. However, just to let you know, things should be getting interesting soon, so expect things to be not quite so Cannon-ish as it goes on. By the way, I have an idea for a second Naruto x HP crossover that I'll start working on soon, if you're interesting, to watch out for that might interest you if you want something a little more Un-cannon-ish. So watch out for 'Yondaime's Legacy' when I get around to it.

By the way, if anyone noticed Kenshin's cameo appearance last chapter…well… that was a dumb mistake. I borrowed a line from my RK x HP fic RKatPS (i.e. I copied and pasted.) but unfortunately didn't pick up on the name I forgot to change. Serves me right for being lazy and short cutting, ne? But not to worry, when I've finished Uchiha Potter, I'll go back to correct any mistakes I made names and spellings wise.

But anyway…

**Disclaimer:** do you really think I'd be writing a fanfiction here if I owned Harry Potter and Naruto? …Exactly.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Harry begins Hogwarts, has a glaring contest with Snape, is made Seeker, pisses off Malfoy and fights a troll at Halloween. A mystery also seems to be unfolding. And he's not even finished his first year yet!

**Chapter Seven:**

**Philosopher's Stone: Second Seal – Kyuka**

BAM!

Harry jumped slightly from where he was dozing on top of his Charms homework and blinked up at Hermione, who had just dropped a large book in front of him, enough to make the whole table shake. He found himself being shot a slightly disapproving glare.

"Honestly, Harry, it's a wonder you actually keep up with the class, the amount of time you spend sleeping." She scolded him, hands on her hips as she looked down at him.

Harry propped his head up on his elbows and pouted. "I resent that – I do not spend all my time sleeping."

"Oh yes? What about in Astronomy?"

"I've already done that at home," Harry whined. "I could already have told you where Polaris could be found, and the Orion constellation if I got lost somewhere to get me back home."

"Okay then, Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

Harry pouted. "But, Hermione-san, he spends the whole lesson reciting from the book and if you ask questions he turns into a stuttering wreck. It's easier to just learn from the book. At least then I know it wasn't garbled by the guy's stutter."

"History of Magic?" Hermione prodded him in the chest.

The genin rolled his eyes. "Hermione-san, everyone falls asleep in History of Magic. You're the only one who seems to be immune to it."

"Okay, so you might have a point there…" Hermione muttered under her breath, before jumping straight back into it by shooting Harry another disapproving glare that seemed to wash right over his head. "But that's beside the point. You never seem to be doing any homework, you never seem to read anything and yet you get the same marks as me in some classes. HOW DO YOU DO IT!"

Harry leaned back, stuffing his finger into his hear to calm the ringing in it after that outburst. "I happen to employ the learn-while-sleeping learning style." He said brightly. Hermione looked at him incredulously.

"Learn…while sleeping…?" She gave him a hard look. "You can't be serious!"

"Of course I am!" Harry said, sounding rather offended that Hermione didn't believe him. "Its scientifically proven that listening to learning tapes while sleeping makes it easier to learn whatever subject the tape was on about. It also happens to work in lectures."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Harry relented with a heaving sigh. "Oh alright. Actually I just read before bed."

_Actually, I just get a Kage Bunshin to read up on everything while we're in class and transfer it to me when it disperses, but I'm not going to tell her that! Trade secrets and all._

"Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense…" Hermione calmed, sitting down in the chair opposite. "Oh yes! By the way, you know when you fought that Troll a few days ago? I was thinking about it. During the fight…you used some weird flames on it. What kind of spell was that?"

"Well…" Harry suddenly felt nervous. Oh, as if he used the Gokakyu in front of one of the most observant civilian magical student! _Harry no Baka_! Well, nothing he could do about it now, except…

"Of course you've seen it before, Hermione-san, don't you remember doing the Incendio charm last week in charms?"

Why, lie through his teeth, of course!

Thankfully the troll was between himself and Hermione, otherwise he doubted he could have explained it off so easily. Even more thankfully, the wires of his Sofushasan no Taichi were far too thin for the civilian eye to see. Hell, it was difficult for even some Shinobi to see. He'd already passed of the effects of the wires as being the Full Body Bind that hadn't completely worked because of the creature's thick hide. And that shuriken he had thrown as being just transfigured tiles to get his attention, having watched too many 'Ninja movies' (he had almost felt like smacking his head on the table when he said that yesterday).

"Oh yes, we did – Ooooh! I can't believe I forgot something like that! And when we were in danger too!" Harry almost sighed in relief. It was one of the charms that Harry had paid extra special attention to. Why? It's a flame-based spell, and he's an Uchiha, why else? Still, he'd have to be more careful. If he wasn't, she might just find enough clues to figure him out for sure. At the moment, she was still young, still terribly naive, which was why he was able to pull off his story, but that would change more than likely as she grew up. Even worse, he was sure that she would become even more observant as time when on.

Leaving Hermione to scold herself a moment longer for her 'fighter's block' during the troll's attack until they were starting to become inaudible, Harry butt into her grumbles. "So, what's with the book larger than yourself anyway?"

Hermione brightened up immediately. "This? Oh, it's the Quidditch through the Ages I rented out from the Library for those Flying Lessons. I thought you might want to read it, since you'll be playing your first match soon – against Slytherin I hear. Ron and his brothers says that the Slytherin's are terrible cheats, but I think they were just exaggerating."

Harry thought about it for a moment. Hmm, against the house that prides itself on cunning, using all the rules (and loopholes) that you could use in order to win, a little like a ninja battle, if you put it that way. Harry grinned. Well, if anything, if he learned all these loopholes for himself, this match proved to be interesting.

"Actually, I think I might just have a look at that, Hermione-san."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Mount your brooms! Three, two, one-"

A loud, shrill whistle was all but drowned out as fifteen brooms shot up into the air, accompanied by a roar from the crowd. This was it, the first Quidditch game that Harry had ever seen or played other than the practices he had somehow managed to squeeze into his usual training routines.

And he loved every second of it!

Harry had given himself an additional boost with chakra to send his broom shooting up higher than any of the others and immediately began eyeing the pitch for any glint of gold or sign of rapidly flapping wings. Harry had to admit that Wood was a good tactician with his sport and Harry had yet to find fault with the plan that they had come up with. For his part, Harry was to stay out of the way of the rest of the game and keep his eyes open for any sign of the snitch. Harry's job was too important to the victory of the game to risk having him accidentally knocked off his broom by a Bludger (not that Harry would have been, but he thought it best to follow the fifth-year's advice.) Still, while his eyes strained for any sign of the tiny ball, his ears couldn't help but listen in amusement at the play-by-play action given by the commentator – who happened to be Lee Jordan, closely watched by McGonagall. Why did the Professor need to keep such a close watch? Well-

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor – what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too –"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry Professor."

Harry couldn't help but snicker at the extremely bias commentary. He felt sorry for McGonagall.

It was about partway into the game when Harry saw a flash of gold and immediately tore after it, his body pressed against the broom before Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, had even seen it. However, he was soon fast on his heals.

A flash of green and silver out of the corner of his eye alerted him to Flint. He would most likely knock Harry flying off his broom if he connected, with the difference in body-size and weight, especially with the speed they were both going at and, from the look in his eye, this was no miscalculations in flight by the Slytherin captain.

_Bending rules already, huh?_ Harry felt his lips quirk up at the rush of adrenaline pounding through his veins. Quickly, Harry leapt up enough so that he was now crouching on the broom with chakra charged feet and jumped, just as Flint was about to swerve into him. To the astounded shock of the onlookers he vaulted over his head, landing on his feet on the broom like a surfboard. Behind him, there was a loud cry and a rather nasty crunch as Higgs, who had been following, was caught in the foiled block. The Gryffindors cheered.

"And an excellent manoeuvre by Uchiha as he fouls up that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-"

"Jordan!"

"I mean, Uchiha completely counteracts that open and obvious foul –"

"Jordan, I'm warning you-!"

Harry ignored the bickered commentary and focused on moving the broom with his feet stuck to the smooth wood by chakra alone. It wobbled, swaying this way and that as the crowds were crying out in horror, as if expecting him to loose his balance and fall off at any moment. Harry adjusted his weight to balance once more and sped up, eyes narrowed as they fixed on the snitch, hand reaching out to grasp it. He was almost there, seconds away when-

The broom jerked horribly and Harry found himself lurching forwards as the broom suddenly halted.

What the-?

Harry looked around in shock at the now becoming familiar static feel of magic. A flare of a chakra signature mixed faintly in it, coming from the direction of the stands. However, Harry didn't have long to search. Once more it jerked. Then almost as if it had gained a life of its own the broom began to buck and shake wildly almost making Harry's head spin from the ferocity of its bucking. Feet still glued to the broom, Harry crouched and grasped with his hand to avoid being shaken enough that even his own chakra would not hold him on. From somewhere below he could hear shouts of shock at what was happening to the Gryffindor Seeker. As Hermione dashed towards the teachers' stand to try and help her friend, the Gryffindor team seemed to forget about the game as they saw what was happening to Harry and immediately shot towards him in an effort to catch him. However, the closer they got, the more the broom would vibrate and shake and would jump higher and higher out of reach until even a Jonin wouldn't be able to make the fall without major life-threatening damage.

_Chikusho,_ Harry thought, eyes trying to fix on where the Chakra was coming from despite feeling as if the broom were trying to shake his brains out, now forced to hold on with one white-knuckled hand. _If this carries on, I might not have enough Chakra to keep myself from falling. Even Naruto couldn't fall that far, even with Kyuubi's speed healing!_

The snitch had once more started to head towards Harry and quickly he assessed what he needed to do. _If I pull this off, I should be able to get out of this victorious and unscathed and I should feel a lot better than I would do after ten minutes with an Oinin and those Senbon…_ He gulped. _I hope._

Then, worry and fear was set aside - nothing else mattered than a Shinobi's unending now.

Harry jumped.

The crowd screamed.

Quickly, Harry snatched out, grasping hold of the tiny ball with lightning reflexes, stuffing it into his hip-pouch and snatched out for the first thing he could to break his freefall. Higgs, who was beginning to recover from his disastrous crash with Flint, was almost vaulted off his broom as Harry grabbed it, flipping himself up into a crouched position at the end of his broom and bounced off once more, sending Higgs into a barely controlled spiralling dive. Flipping in the air to keep himself up high enough, Harry snatched out at a passing Bludger zipping across his path, pulling it out of its track as he used it to change his course. Momentarily bouncing from a terrified Wood's broom to swing round the side of the tallest goalpost.

Straightening, the blood pounding in his ears and adrenaline rushing through his veins, Harry, still holding onto the goalpost with one hand pulled out the snitch and punched it up in the air so that the tiny golden ball could clearly be seen. It's slightly battered wings (from having been handled so roughly by the Uchiha) beat weakly in his fingers.

"I got the Snitch!" Harry cried.

The entire stadium erupted into Chaos. Wood was blinking as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard, while the Slytherin captain was yelling something about it being invalid, since Harry 'interfered with the Slytherin Seeker'. However, Harry had read enough of the Quidditch through the ages to know that since he had caught the snitch before he touched Higgs' broom and that Harry had only grapped Higgs' broom to stop himself falling to his doom, he hadn't broken any rules at all, which Jordan was happily shouting over the crowds to the fuming Flint. Madam Hooch, the referee for the match, was too busy staring at Harry as if he was suicidal or just plain crazy. Harry beamed a large to-rival-Naruto fox-grin at the hawk-eyed woman.

"So, you gonna call the game or what?"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The Winter Solstice was fast approaching and soon the Christmas holidays were almost upon them. Already the temperature was dropping and the festive mood was beginning to be felt by everyone in the castle.

"WHY THE HELL IS IT SO COLD HERE!"

…Well, almost everyone.

Harry was currently wrapped up in three of his Hogwarts cloaks, his Hogwarts robes worn over the top of his usual wide-necked Uchiha-embalm marked T-shirt (long-sleeved) and a pare of longer shorts that reached passed his knees in length and was sitting as close to the fire as you could possibly get without frying yourself in the flames. Yet he was still shivering. Still, Hermione had raised an eyebrow when Harry still insisted on wearing his ninja saddles.

"Its not really that cold," Jordan said as he continued playing something called 'Gobstones' with the twins.

"Where I live, believe me, this is bloody cold," Harry grumbled as he curled up more on the sofa. He gave a loud sneeze for effect.

"Whats it usually like where you come from, Harry?" Asked Neville as he and Ron ate through a stack of Chocolate Frogs – an enchanted, frog shaped chocolate that acted like a frog for about a minute or more as soon as the packet was opened - and were exchanging the trading cards inside.

"A lot warmer than this," Harry mumbled. "It barely ever freezes even. And you say it's like this for the whole winter?"

"Yep."

"Oh, you poor, poor people."

"Um, need I remind you that you're the one looking like the Michelin Man in all those clothes?" Hermione said from over the book she was reading, trying to find something about someone called 'Nicholas Flamel', while the Weasleys and Neville were all muttering to themselves about what a Michelin Man was.

"…Good point."

Well, even if had been wrong about just who the 'poor people' were, Harry had been right about one thing – there was definitely something going on at Hogwarts. Something that seemed to involve some sort of Cerberus, Dumbledore, the third floor, Snape (at least, that was who Hermione and Ron seemed to think had attempted to buck him of his broom during the match, although Harry wasn't quiet as sure.) and some guy named Nicholas Flamel if what Hagrid had spilled was any indication. And if Harry's guess was right, it probably had something to do with that Troll and the ominous Chakra at Halloween as well. Since then, He, Ron and Hermione had begun to look into it – although for the most part it had been Hermione and Ron, since Harry had suddenly seemed to contract a cold because of the colder than usual weather.

As the holidays were approaching, teachers had come round with a list of those who would stay during the holidays. Feeling slightly guilty, but reverently clinging onto the promise Dumbledore had given him (at the risk of provoking the Genin's wrath) and the odd goings on that Harry wanted to investigate, Harry glumly placed his name on the list also.

Everyone seemed to be excited about the upcoming prospect of a holiday. Even though Harry already knew that there would be holidays – seeing as his brothers might be coming to visit, as per agreement if they weren't too busy with the academy or something (they had yet to answer his owls) – Harry still didn't really understand what everyone was so excited about.

"Why is everyone so happy Winter Solstice anyways?" Harry asked in confusion from his place on the couch as he watched the rest of the Gryffindors excitedly discussing something called 'Christmas' and kept mentioning something about presents, although what the solstice and Presents had to do with each other, Harry had yet to work out.

Fred, George and Jordan, upon hearing this, promptly dropped the Gobstones in shock, which resulted in all three of them getting squirted in the face with some sort of foul liquid. Ron and Neville choked on the Chocolate Frog they were eating and Hermione promptly dropped the book she was reading, and shot him a surprised look. The former boys all stared at Harry as if he were crazy.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT CHRISTMAS!"

Their combined yell almost toppled him off the seat. Rubbing his poor, abused ears, Harry frowned at them. "No. Should I?"

It almost seemed as though the boys had fallen into complete and utter shock. Tentatively, Neville said. "Um…don't you celebrate Christmas where you grew up?"

Harry shrugged under his cloaks. "We have Winter Solstice, but nothing brilliant. We do get the day off if you're lucky, though," Harry added musingly.

While the Weasley's (and Jordan) were trying to get their mouths to work again, Hermione licked her lips slightly, paused, then said. "Well, primarily, Christmas is a Christian Holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. However, as time's gone on, it has just been adopted as a… national 'Winter Solstice' holiday, I guess."

"Oh. So whats that got to do with presents?"

More choking. If Harry was looking right and it wasn't just the lighting, he was sure Ron was turning red – or was that blue?

"Well, it's a custom we have, exchanging gifts with loved ones," Hermione said. "After all, they do say Christmas is a time for the family."

"Family, huh?" In Harry's mind, a mental image of Sasuke and Naruto appeared. He imagined them ripping into presents, like the ones that the students kept talking about with wide, childish grins on their faces and sparkling eyes. He smiled. "Hey, how do I get Christmas presents for people from here? After all, I've got two little brothers to get nine years worth of presents for!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The Holidays were about to start and Naruto and Sasuke still hadn't answered Harry on whether or not they would be visiting Hogwarts. Although Harry was disappointed, he decided to send Manji the presents he had bought for them to Konoha, and then to irritate the two boys all Christmas day because he wouldn't be in Konoha to do it. Still, He wasn't going to be totally alone at Hogwarts either, since all the Weasleys were staying at Hogwarts (something about their parents and little sister were going to visit Charlie in Romania).

However, Neville, Jordan and Hermione were all headed back to their homes to be with their own families over Christmas.

"I'm sorry I can't stay," Neville told Harry as they made their way down to the train station, where the Weasley twins, Ron and himself were going to see their friends off with some of the other students staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, while a few teachers accompanied them. "But Gran'd be really annoyed with me if I didn't go back to see her for Christmas…"

Harry, despite the fact he was now wearing longer trousers (with taped ankles), a jacket like Naruto's (except in blue and grey, rather than Naruto's orange and navy complete with Uchiha motif.), his Hogwarts robes open at the front and his thick red and gold scarf, seemed to have got used to the colder weather now. He smiled at Neville and ruffled his hair. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm sure we'll be fine here. You go enjoy being with your family."

Hermione pulled both Harry and Ron to one side. "You will keep looking for anything on Flamel while I'm away, won't you?" she whispered, eyes flickering to the twins and Jordan, who were chatting quite loudly, and Neville, who was trying to get Trevor to stay put inside his coat pocket where it was warm. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"_Hai, hai_, don't worry, Hermione-_chan_," Harry said teasingly. "We'll let you know, don't worry."

"Hey, you guys, the train's here!" Jordan yelled.

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," Ron suggested hurriedly as Hermione moved to get on the train. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe – they're both dentists."

"_NIISAN_!"

"_ANIKI_!"

"Wha-?"

Hermione, Neville, the Weasleys and Jordan all blinked in shock as two blurs, one blue, one orange collided into Harry's chest, sending all three of them falling down onto the Platform. Harry lay there staring in shock at the two boys now lying on top of him, before a wide grin sprung onto his face even wider than his prankster grin. "Sasuke! Naruto! You guys came!"

"Course we did, silly," Naruto said loudly, beaming from ear to ear. "We wanted to surprise you!"

"I'd say it worked too," Sasuke chuckled. "You should have seen the look on your face, _Aniki_!"

"Brats," Harry mock-growled and lightly bopped them both over the head, messing up their hair until they both squawked in protest. "That's for making me worry, _baka_!"

"Um…who…who are those two?" Hermione asked in confusion, staring between Sasuke, Naruto and back to Harry in surprise.

Harry sat up on the floor, still grinning and slung his arms over the beaming boys' shoulders. "Guys, this is Sasuke and Naruto – my little brothers! Seeing as we live pretty far away, Dumbledore-_sensei_ agreed to let them come visit me at Hogwarts instead!"

"Yo!" Naruto waved energetically at the dumbfounded wizard-students and grinned, while Sasuke, suddenly seeming to realise the attention he was getting, blushed slightly and looked away, muttering a quiet 'hello', to which Hermione obviously found endearing from the small smile she was now wearing.

Harry turned back to the boys. "Sasuke, Naruto, these are Ron, Fred, George, Jordan, Neville and Hermione I told you about in my letters."

"Oh, cool! So you're the ones _Niisan_ mentioned when he told me about that cool prank you played Halloween!" Naruto was practically bouncing.

Sasuke glanced at Hermione, then leaned into Harry and whispered in Japanese, "_Are you sure being friends with a girl's a good idea – you know, with those fan-girls back home…? They might get the wrong idea or something."_

Harry grimaced. _"She's a witch, she's smart, she should be fine…I think…"_ Sasuke sweat-dropped. Harry coughed and, in English, continued in a louder tone, "Uh, anyway, how'd you two get here anyway? Portkey? Did you come on your own?"

"Oh no, I brought them."

Harry blinked, surprised by the new and yet familiar voice. "I-Iruka-_sensei_?"

The young teacher stepped out of the train with a grin on his face. "Hey, Harry-_kun_. I see the English lesson's paid off."

"Hey, what are you doing here? Don't you have academy to teach?"

Iruka rolled his eyes. "What is it that makes people think that us teachers never leave the academy?" he switched to Japanese. "_I do get missions sometimes, you know_."

Harry did the first thing that came into his mind. He stuck his tongue out.

"Oh, very mature, Harry-kun."

"Wait, who's this guy?" Ron exclaimed, obviously fed up of being ignored now.

"Oh yeah, guys, this is Iruka Umino. He used to be my teacher and is a… family friend. Iruka-sensei, these are my friends here at Hogwarts."

"Hey, it's nice to meet you guys," Iruka said with an amiable smile on his face.

"Uh, its nice to meet you, sir," Hermione managed politely. However, the Weasleys were rather preoccupied by Naruto, who was now rapidly asking the twins about the kind of wizard prank that they could do with magic, while Sasuke just sighed and shook his head, muttering in Japanese about Naruto still being a dobe no matter where they went.

"I can't take you anywhere." Sasuke muttered eventually.

"Whats that supposed to mean, _teme_!"

Harry grinned, arms behind his head as he laughed at their antics. "I think this should be fun, ne sensei?"

"If I can survive for that long," Iruka chuckled. "And I thought teaching you in class was bad!"

Harry pouted.

It wasn't long after that when Hermione, Neville and Jordan had to get on the train to leave for home, despite the fact they were all looking very interested in the newcomers. Reluctantly, they boarded and waved through the window. With a smile, Harry waved them off until the train disappeared out of the station. Watching after it, they quickly followed the teachers who allowed them to come to see their friends off – Iruka was now talking to them in a low voice, most likely on how they required three guests without mentioning anything to do with Konoha. As they walked, Naruto looked Harry over and wrinkled his nose.

"_Niisan_, what are you wearing?"

Harry mock-glared at his blond younger brother. "This coming from the boy who wears neon bright orange? Its part of the school uniform - although the coloured linings change depending on the 'house' you get sorted into. I'm in Gryffindor, but there are four houses altogether."

"What are 'houses'?" Sasuke asked in confusion.

Harry scratched his head, wondering how exactly to explain it. "I guess they're similar to the… _hidden villages_ – well, vaguely anyway. I think its got something to do with promoting friendly competition or some other whacked out idea that Wizards seem to get."

"Whats the point in that?" Sasuke frowned.

Harry shrugged. "Beats me. I don't care too much, although some of the Slytherins are interesting opponents." He added, thinking over the Quidditch match. That had been fun, even though the having his broom cursed bit he could have done without. "But if these Wizards aren't careful, it'll blow into full scale 'House-wars' or something."

The Castle came into view over the trees as they rounded the corner. Sasuke and Naruto let out exclamations of shock, awe and appreciation at the sight.

"Woah, when _Sandaime-sama_ mentioned a Castle, I didn't think he meant something quite like this," Iruka said, obviously impressed.

"Cool sight, ne?" Harry said with a smile.

"Speaking of cool-" Naruto sneezed loudly. "How cold is it here?" he whined, pulling his jacket close. "Burr, it's freezing here! How the hell can you stand it?"

The youngest redhead looked between Harry (who was still wearing a lot more layers than the others) to the two shivering younger boys. "What is it with you guys?" Ron shook his head in exasperation. "Its not even that cold you know."

"So says you, _baka_!" Naruto growled loudly, before beginning a long litany of whining about the weather, while Harry was looking rather amused at Ron half spluttering on how Naruto was talking (read: yelling) to him, and half confused as to what Naruto had called him. Especially since Harry had used that same word to describe him at times.

"_Ne_, let's go inside, before we all freeze, _Aniki_," Sasuke said loudly, cutting into Naruto's yelling before he got side-tracked by a loud verbal sparing with the younger redhead.

"Why not?" Harry smiled. He slung his arms over his brothers' shoulders. "A word of warning though, there's loads of weird stuff in this place. Moving stairs, Live-armour, Talking portraits, ghosts, poltergeists," he let out a slight sob. "A complete lack of Dango or Ramen-"

"WHAAAAAAAAT?" Naruto's yell caused all of the wizards (and the two older nin) to wince at the volume. Sasuke sighed at the words 'Dango' and, from somewhere, had pulled out earmuffs and had them fitted snuggly round his ears in time to save his hearing. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'VE GOT NO RAMEN?"

"Sorry, _Ototo_," Harry said mournfully, patting Naruto's arm in sympathy. "But there's no ramen here. I completely understand. I mean, its just wrong not to have dango and ramen."

Naruto looked up at him with wide, tearful eyes. "What…what kind of barbaric place doesn't have any r-ramen?"

The older Uchiha chuckled. "Well, that's Hogwarts for you!" Harry said brightly.

"_Baka_," Sasuke grunted.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Harry-nii, Harry-nii, wake up!"

Harry's eyes snapped open when Naruto suddenly bounced onto his chest, almost causing him to stab the boy with his kunai on instinct before his mind registered just whom it was sitting on his chest.

It was a few days after Naruto and Sasuke arrived at Hogwarts. Although the teachers had been quite shocked with the appearance of Iruka and what Harry had started to think of in his own mind as the 'Uzuchiha brothers', Dumbledore must have had words, because aside from the occasional curious glance, they never said a word. It had been decided that Sasuke and Naruto would spend their time in the Gryffindor tower with Harry, seeing as there would be spare beds over the holidays for the boys, while Iruka was given separate quarters close to the Fat Lady's portrait.

It had been a very interesting visit so far. Naruto also got on very well with the Weasley twins and it wasn't uncommon to see Naruto, Harry and the Weasley twins thinking up prank ideas. Sasuke had become intrigued by Wizards chess ever since he saw Harry and Ron playing it, (Harry was okay at it. But it seemed Ron had quite a bit of experience so, despite many close calls, Ron won more matches than the older Uchiha did) and soon got both Harry and Ron to teach him the rules. After that, it had become a common sight in the Gryffindor common room to see Sasuke and Ron playing each other at Chess and for the sounds of "Best two out of three!" to be heard from Ron after a smirking Sasuke beat him several times. Although Harry was slightly annoyed that his brother was better than him, he still found it far more rewarding to see Ron getting his ass kicked (not literally, mind you) by a nine-year-old. Peeves got on surprisingly well with the younger shinobi. Although that might have been because Harry, who could now focus his chakra pretty well by this point from his training, had threatened to boot him with a chakra-charged foot through the roof and did just that (much to the joy of the ghosts) when Peeves decided not to comply when they had first met.

During the times when Harry was not with his brothers, he had sparred with Iruka. It was good to know he wasn't going soft here at Hogwarts. Still, having Iruka around was funny. Who knew the Chunin-sensei had a mild fear of Yurei? ("Not one word, Uchiha, not one word" – Iruka)

It was now Christmas Eve morning and ungodly early in the morning even for Harry (and that said something).

"Naruto…? Whats going on?"

"_Aniki_, you've gotta come see this!" Sasuke exclaimed excitedly, before his head disappeared out the window again. Surprised that Sasuke was acting…well…like his age, Harry scrambled out of bed to have a look to see just what had caused that reaction. His eyes widened.

Outside, the entire grounds had taken a drastic makeover. The grounds were no longer a lush green, but now sparkled like diamonds as the moon's glow and the edges of soft pink on the horizon glistened on pure white, newly fallen snow. The lake had frozen solid and had to have been at least three-foot thick with ice, reflecting the white-topped trees on misted mirror stillness. No wonder the two boys were so excited. Apart from learning a little about it while studying the geography of the hidden continent (Snow country being the obvious topic of discussion), this was actually the first time that Sasuke, Naruto and himself had actually seen snow. It had never snowed in Konoha because they had always had too mild a climate.

Of course, it wasn't long before they were up, dressed in warm scarves, jackets and gloves and, seconds later, dashed outside, where they proceeded to dash through the snow and started an impromptu snowball fight – ninja style. Meaning that snowballs were bouncing off of windows of the seventh floor of the castle.

Harry threw a snowball about as big as his head and it smacked into the back of Naruto's, just as he was about to throw a snowball at Sasuke that was almost as big as he was. Of course, that meant that Naruto's snowball landed on top of himself instead.

"Niisaaaaaaan!" Naruto yelled at Harry, who was beaming as he bounced a snowball in a gloved hand.

"'All's fair in love and war', Naru-chan," Harry quoted, before lobbing the last snowball that landed squarely into Naruto's face.

"Why you!"

Harry bolted as Naruto started to throw a volley of snowballs at the two Uchihas, although most of them were flying high enough to smash into the Gryffindor tower window.

There was a strangled cry and a startled oath and Harry, Naruto and Sasuke looked up towards the Gryffindor tower, where Fred and George had just disappeared as a rogue snowball splattered over their faces. Seconds later, the twins appeared once more, identical evil grins spreading on their faces.

"Oh, that does it, Harrikins-"

"You know what this means, don't you?

"This means-

"War!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Harry yelled back, seeing the smug look on Sasuke's face and Naruto's brightening considerably at the challenge. "You two and Ron against me and my brothers!"

"Your team's going down, Harry!" Fred yelled back with a wide prankster grin, vanishing from the window. Seconds later, fully dressed and pulling a still half asleep Ron along with them they dashed out into the snow and the Snowball fight began.

It wasn't long before they realised just what a stupid idea it was to challenge a shinobi and two in-training ninja's, even if they didn't actually know that that was whom they were up against.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Every other day of the year, you're awake before the sun, Harry. But on Christmas you want to sleep in?" Ron shook his head. "You're barmy."

Harry cracked open an eye at the youngest redhead and grumbled slightly as he buried his head under the blankets once more, muttering under his breath about being allowed a lie-in every once in a while on a special occasion. However, seeing as Ron wasn't about to let him get away with that, prodding him in the side almost continuously, Harry gave it up as a bad job. Elbowing himself up, scrubbing his eyes, he absently threw at pillow at Ron, who vanished from round the hangings of his four-poster bed with a squawk.

It was possible that it was still early in the morning for most people, although quite late for a shinobi such as himself. The sun was already creeping through the gap in the hangings of his bed. He blinked slightly as he found both his brothers laying at the end of his bed, but had grown used to it since the first night his brothers had come to stay. It had sort of surprised Ron, the only other boy still staying in the first year dormitories of the Gryffindor tower over the holidays, but the younger boys explained that it was something to do with spending as much time with their big brother as they could before they had to go back to Konoha. Not that Harry minded, especially with the rather amusing by-play that occurred every morning.

Sasuke stirred when Ron had stuck his head in and was already sleepily rousing an grumpy Naruto, who was muttering under his breath something about Sasuke, bastards and something rather painful involving kunai, shuriken and human targets in Japanese. Sasuke just grunted and thwacked him over the head.

A little later, a bit more awake and alert, the three shinobi headed down into the Gryffindor common room, where they were greeted by the beaming face of Ron – surrounded by a mountain load of presents.

"Hey, its about time you were up!" Ron grinned at them. "Merry Christmas!"

Harry grinned in return at the boy, his eyes running over the pile of presents. _Which reminds me_, "Oh yeah!" Harry beamed. "Hang on-" he bolted back upstairs and came running back down seconds later with a bundle of roughly wrapped presents in his arms. He despotised them in the two shocked younger boy's arms. "_Meri Kurisumasu_!"

"_Uwaaa, sugoi_! You got us presents too, _niisan_? You're the best!" Naruto launched himself at Harry, who managed to catch him before they both tumbled to the ground, spinning around to keep his balance.

Sasuke also joined Naruto, although with a little less force than a bullet. He beamed up at Harry. "We weren't sure you knew about it! Iruka-sensei told us only a few days before we knew we were coming here!" he pointed over to a small pile of presents sitting under the Christmas tree. "Good job we did get you presents!"

"My Idea!"

"It was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too-!"

"Ne, you gonna open yours or not?" Harry asked with a chuckle from his place by his own pile of presents (which he was looking in awe at – he hadn't expected so many!) That quickly pacified them and they were sitting on the floor ripping through paper faster than you could blink. Ron just shook his head.

"Barmy. All of you – barmy."

"Like you can talk, I-will-not-let-a-nine-year-old-beat-me-chan"

Ron lobbed a balled up wrapping paper at the older Uchiha, who easily dodged the assault. "Oh shut up, Harry!"

Harry smiled innocently at Ron (the effect ruined slightly by the impish twinkle in his emerald eyes) and instead dove into his small pile of presents. He lifted the first one curiously to see who it was from. It was a long thin package from Hagrid, the giant man who Harry had got to know quite well after his first encounter with him. It seemed Hagrid had known his parents quite well and Harry spent a little of his time visiting on a Friday afternoon after his training (if he wasn't too busy with pranks or something). Opening it, he found that it was a hand-carved flue, surprisingly well made. It sounded a little like an owl when he played it. He wondered if he should have Sasuke play a tune on it later, since he was much better at the instrument than Harry was (although Sasuke would probably disagree). He resolved to write Hagrid a thank you card for the thought.

The second gift was from Sasuke, who had got him a new set of Exploding Tags complete with special kunai to use them with – which Harry was quite thankful, since he had been running low on Kibaku Fuda before he left Konoha, and yet was also very cautious about. God knows what would happen if one of them exploded while they were in Hogwarts. Meanwhile, Naruto had bought him a weapons service set to keep his kunai sharp and deadly _("Well, if your gonna be training with big Troll-thingies, Niisan"_ – Naruto). Iruka had also given him a gift from the Hokage – another scroll to work on. This one about certain herbs – obviously he had heard about his adventures in Herbology and Potions from his brothers – that Harry might find useful as a shinobi. All of these Harry kept out of sight from Ron, which wasn't too hard, since he had almost disappeared in a large box full of Every-Flavour Beans from Hermione.

Speaking of Hermione, she had bought him a small box of chocolate Frogs and a book on different forms of Martial arts. The note that came with it said that 'if he was going to be interested in ninja from movies, he might as well learn some of the moves from the book so he doesn't hurt himself playing ninja'. Harry tried not to sweat drop at that. Still, the book was quite interesting to read, since he was sure it could boost his Taijutsu if he learned other styles than just the Uchiha forms. He resolved to have Naruto have a look too, to help out his 'brawler's style' he seemed fond of using from the lack of having a formal clan style.

The next parcel was rather lumpy and Harry's eyebrows raised slightly. Ron, who was just emerging from his box of sweets, saw what he was holding and his ears turned crimson.

"Oh bloody Hell, it looks as though Mom's adopted you this year," Ron muttered, still rather pink as he pointed to the parcel in Harry's hands. "I mentioned that you might not get many presents, since you don't celebrate Christmas back where you live- Oh no! She sent you a Weasley jumper!"

Harry tore open the paper to find a thick, hand-knitted Chunin-vest coloured green jumper, along with a box of homemade fudge. When Harry held up the jumper to himself, he discovered it was exactly his size and, what surprised him even more was that it even had a knitted Uchiha-fan motif on the back.

"Yeah, I sorta mentioned you always wore that on your normal clothes as well," Ron muttered, still very red. "Every year she makes us a jumper," Ron continued as he unwrapped his own, "and mine's _always_ maroon."

Harry laughed a little at that. Ron hated the colour maroon. He threw a piece of fudge in his mouth. "Hey, thank your mother for me," Harry said, savouring the taste of the fudge. He had to admit it was really good stuff.

A box of Zonko's pranking equipment including wet-start fireworks from the twins and Jordan, and his own Remembrall from Neville later, Harry came to his last present… and stared. Who else would be getting Harry a present? Not Malfoy or _Itachi_, surely!

Sasuke and Naruto, who were in the middle of examining a Wizards Chess Set and a Fanged Frisbees as parts of their respective presents from their older brother, both paused when Harry picked up the last gift as if it were about to jump up and bite him. (Hey, he'd seen stranger things happen, you could hardly blame him).

"Who's that from, Aniki?" Sasuke asked, looking a little uneasy at the way Harry was acting.

"Dunno," Harry answered, turning the present in his hands carefully as he searched for some kind of note or tag. "It doesn't say."

"Careful, Niisan!"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, it's only a present. Whats the worst that could happen?"

"This coming from the guy who has brothers like the Twins?"

"…Point."

Still, Harry decided to stop beating round the bush and just get it over and done with. Holding it out at arm length, ready to use a Kawarimi if it turned out to be something dangerous, Harry pealed back the wrapping paper, flinching as he expected it to be a trap. Nothing. Harry cracked open an eye. Seeing as it hadn't exploded or something yet, Harry took this as a good sign and continued to unwrap it a little more confidently, although still wary.

Something fluid and silvery grey went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds. Ron's eyes went wide with shock.

"If that is what I think it is, you are one bloody lucky bloke, Harry. Those are really rare and valuable," he said in a hushed voice, scrabbling up to take a look at it (his other presents lay forgotten.) "It is! An Invisibility cloak, I'm sure it is! Go on, put it on!"

Carefully, Harry picked the cloth up, running his fingers across it. It was so light and smooth, if felt like it was woven from air and water, rather than any other sort of material. "Invisibility…cloak?" Harry asked, holding it up. It looked like a normal cloak to him – an extremely high quality one of what must have been expensive materials, but still a cloak. However, seeing how excited Ron seemed to be about it, as if it was the world's greatest jutsu, Harry shrugged and in one sure movement, flung it over his shoulders.

Ron looked like he was bouncing with excitement and crying "It is, it is!", Sasuke's eyes nearly dropped from his skull. Naruto-

"_WAH! WHAT KIND OF GENJUSTU IS THAT!"_

-Had jumped back with an oath, pointing at Harry and shouted in a comical manner, so shocked that he had reverted back to Japanese in his surprise. Harry raised his eyebrows and turned to look in a mirror to see what they were all so in awe about. His jaw almost dropped to the floor. Everything but his head had completely vanished!

Pulling the cloak off, everything reappeared, putting it back on again, everything vanished once more. With a wide grin, Harry threw it over his head and vanished completely.

"_Niisan_!" Naruto said franticly, looking around worriedly. "Where'd he go, where'd he go?"

Harry pulled off the cloak as he got millimetres from Naruto's face. "Here!"

"Gah!" Naruto yelped and fell over backwards.

Harry laughed at the look on his brothers' faces. "Ne, if I knew who this thing was from, I think I just found a new best friend!" Harry grinned, idly wondering if Neji's Byakugan could see through the magical genjutsu of the…what did Ron call it? Invisibility cloak? If he couldn't, Harry was sure that the boy would be spitting feathers over it once Harry got back.

"Look, _Aniki_, there's a note," Sasuke said.

Harry looked around to see what note Sasuke had seen. Eyeing it and, seeing as there didn't seem to be any exploding tags or any jutsu (ninja or magical) that Harry could tell, the genin picked it up carefully, holding it with as little skin as possible in case it was coated with something, his brothers leaning over his shoulders to see. There was a few sentences written on the note in a neat, loopy hand that looked both familiar and unfamiliar, although Harry couldn't quite place it.

_Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you._

It was left unsigned.

The younger boys looked at each other and then at Harry. Harry, on the other hand, was looking at the cloak carefully, running his fingers over the material absently. He wondered if it really had belonged to his father, the man whom Fugaku had mentioned only few times. If it did, then his father must have been one cool guy, even if he was never a shinobi. It was better than any Kakuremino no Jutsu!

"That is so cool!" Naruto exploded. "Ne, your Tochan must have been so cool!"

Sasuke looked a little envious, although it was mostly put on. His eyes clearly said, 'I'm glad you got such a cool gift'. "Ne, people back home won't know what hit them – you and an invisibility cloak," Sasuke muttered, giving Harry a sly grin.

Harry tossed Sasuke a lazy grin and tousled his hair. "_Urusai_, squirt."

Before anything else could be said, the door to the boy's dormitory burst open and Fred and George bounded into the room. Quickly, Harry stuffed the cloak into his hip pouch. It wasn't that he didn't trust the two (well, okay, perhaps a little, but as a rival prankster at times, one had to keep on their toes), but Harry would rather keep an edge to himself. After all, it would be less effective, the more who knew of it. As the door almost bounced of its hinges as it slammed into the wall from their grand entrance, they cried jovially, "Merry Christmas!"

George (Harry was one of the few people who could tell the difference between them because of the slight difference of Chakra, was now even easier to pinpoint, as the twins were wearing bright blue jumpers. One bore a large yellow F, the speaker had a large letter G, which made naming them simple out of the process of elimination) waved a hand at them. "Hey, Look – Harry's got a Weasley jumper too!"

Fred tugged at the sleeve of Harry's jumper, which the boy was now wearing over his usual Uchiha T-shirt, seeing as it, too, bore the motif. "Yours is better than ours, though. She obviously makes more effort if you're not family."

George prodded Ron in the arm with an accusing finger. "Why aren't you wearing yours, Ron?" he demanded. "Come on, get it on, they're lovely and warm."

"But I hate Maroon," Ron whined as he reluctantly pulled it on over his head.

George looked thoughtfully at their jumpers. "You haven't got a letter on yours." He observed. "I suppose she thinks you won't forget your name. But we're not stupid – we know we're called Gred and Forge."

"Sometimes I wonder if you can tell the difference yourselves, you know," Harry said slyly.

"Ooooo, Harrikins is growing fangs!" Fred teased.

"Dear brother, if Harrikin's gets more fangs he'd be a shark," George pointed out. Of course, they knew about the troll. Hell, the whole school knew about the troll, and some of the stories going round were even wilder than the truth was!

"Claws then."

"Now he sounds like a tiger."

"Ah, but a very cute little tiger."

Harry just shook his head, quite used to their antics by now. Seconds later the dormitory door was opened once more to reveal an irked-looking Percy. He looked as if he was halfway through his own gift opening, and a knitted jumper draped over one arm. The twins swiped it at once.

"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours. Even Harry got one!"

"I - don't – want –" Percy said thickly, as the twins forced it over his head, pinning his arms and knocking his glasses askew. They began to argue about Christmas being a time for family as the frog-marched him out of the room, followed by gales of laughter from Ron, Harry, Naruto and Sasuke.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry had to admit that this Christmas day was the best he had ever had in his life (not to mention it being the only Christmas Harry had ever had in his life). Dressed in his usual clothes minus robes and now in his new Weasley-made Uchiha jumper, accompanied by his brothers and the Weasleys, Harry had met up with Iruka coming out of his guest rooms to present his teacher with a present – "For all the English lessons". Which were several coupons for Ichiraku ramen (which he liked almost as much as Naruto – though not quite that much), and Hogwarts, a History, seeing how interested the chunin was with the castle and this magic stuff that Harry had been learning about. He didn't see Iruka much that day after the feast. Harry guessed he had his head stuck in that book.

But what a feast it was!

Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung around the walls, and there were at least twelve Christmas trees towered over the room, sparkling with silvery, glittering icicles that looked like stars, or golden bubbles charmed by the tiny professor Flitwick. The table was covered with a hundred fat, roasted turkeys; mountains of roasted and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – hell, there were even Ramen and Dango and other such dishes from back home. (Obviously Naruto's doing, although Harry wondered how he convinced the teachers on that one. Not that he didn't appreciate it or anything). There was also stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. When Harry pulled one with George, the thing literally exploded, enveloping them in a thick cloud of blue smoke that had all in the vicinity in a coughing fit, making genin, Chunin and academy students jump and all four of them had to stop themselves from reacting further. (As in, attacking everything in sight). When the smoke cleared, their sat a real hat with what looked like Cat ears (which Fred immediately tried to force Harry to wear, seeing as Harry was 'such a cute little tiger', although he came through that with a rather large lump on his head with the cat-ears resting on top for his sins.) Along with that, several live mice. Harry, Sasuke and Naruto saw Mrs Norris give them a calculating look.

Naruto leaned into Sasuke. "Ne, ne, how long do you think they'll last?"

"I give them till dinner," Sasuke replied, calmly eating despite the fact he was now wearing what looked like an admirals hat – Harry wished he had a camera, his fan-girls would flip!

Up on the high table, Dumbledore looked positively ridiculous in what looked like a bonnet and Harry observed Hagrid getting redder and redder through the meal as he called for more wine, before kissing McGonagall on the cheek. It sent all the students into a mass cardiac arrest when she actually begun to _giggle_!

After a snowball fight that ended up another win for the 'Uzuchiha' team, (that evolved into a charming of several snowballs that bounced of the back of Quirrell's turban until he had been reduced to a nervous wreck and refused to come out of his office. Then being chased around the school by a highly irate Iruka when his three would-be students managed to strike him in the back of the head with a second charmed snowball), they all returned to the dorms where they ate dinner of sandwiches, crumpets, trifle and Christmas cake. Afterwards, Harry stretched out comfortably on the sofa while watching Fred and George get chased all round the Gryffindor tower by Percy, who was screaming at them to give his prefect badge back until Sasuke and Naruto fell asleep on his shoulders. By that point, Harry dove into 'big brother mode' and gently carried the both of them up to the dormitories, the boy's only stirring slightly as Harry placed them on the bed, before mumbling something under their breaths about over-protective brothers. Harry just smiled.

Now, however, Harry lay with his arms tucked behind his head and listened to the loud snoring of Naruto and Ron, feeling oddly wide awake and wondering why. With a sigh, he tuned onto his side, his eyes landing on the belt of his utility pouch and they widened as they caught sight of the silvery corner that stuck out from the opening. A slightly mischievous grin spread over his face.

_Well, seeing as I'm not sleepy, how about taking this thing for a test drive?_

Contemplating waking up his brothers to come with him, and deciding against it (they'd most likely kill him for waking them up just to 'play' in the dead of night) Harry pulled out his cloak from the pouch and quickly strapped on his kunai holster. Beaming widely in a way to rival Naruto's fox-grin, he threw the cloak over his shoulders and vanished from sight.

On hindsight, he was never quite sure if it was a bad idea or not.

He had decided to check out the library – mostly because he felt honour-bound to at least have a try in the restricted section for something on Flamel (he had promised Hermione after all). Oh, or to look for some cool new 'Mahojutsu' (Kijutsu, as Iruka tried to get him to call it in exasperation when Harry continued to use his made-up word for it.) However, before he had managed to get anywhere in his search, he had heard a loud thud and a slight choked off sound that made him almost drop the book he was about to pull off the shelf.

"S-Severus, I-I-"

"You don't want me as your enemy Quirrell," a cold voice cut in.

Huh? Quirrell and…Snape?

Quickly, he snuffed the candle in his lamp and, cloak tucked tight, slipped round the bookshelves and peered round the corner. Quirrell looked more nervous than usual – not surprising since Snape had the man pinned against the wall by his robes.

From that point onwards, Harry heard some rather informative information about Snape, Quirrell and something about loyalties. To Harry, this meant one of three things: One, that Snape was after whatever that Cerberus creature of Hagrid's was guarding and was making Quirrell find out about how to get past it. Two, that Quirrell was trying to get past the creature and Snape was trying to stop him, or three, that they were working together and Quirrell was straying. With how Snape acted, it was easy to think it was the former choice, but Harry was shinobi, taught to look 'underneath the underneath', so he couldn't jump to any conclusions where personality was concerned. What was worse, it sounded like there was a third party involved as well and Harry had a bad feeling that it had something to do with that ominous chakra he had felt during both Halloween and during the match.

Unfortunately, Harry didn't have much time to consider the possibilities of a traitor at Hogwarts, because Mr Filch came along, as well as Mrs Norris on their usual night-patrol. Knowing just how well that cat could smell (he'd swear it was part dog), Harry made a quick retreat into a disused room to avoid being sniffed out by the feline.

Sighing as the sounds of footsteps and the soft padding of cat-paws died away and turned to look back into the room once more. It looked like it was some sort of classroom once, if the dust settling on the piled up desks and chairs at the back of the room. Other than an upturned waist-paper basket, the only other furniture in the room was a large mirror; ornate and almost scraped the ceiling as it stood on pure gold clawed feet. Arching over the top was a carved inscription engraved into the golden frame. _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _

At first, it seemed nothing more than nonsense and babble, but as Harry tried to work it out, it clicked in his heads. These weren't words in a way Harry would normally read them. They were written backwards, and would only make sense if they were read through a mirror themselves. '_Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire'_

Altering where the spaces fell in the words, the message finally said: 'I show not your face but your hearts desire.'

Harry eyed the mirror with a mixture of awe and suspicion. If that meant what Harry thought it meant, then if Harry looked into that mirror, he'd see what he would want most in the world. In his mind, he already knew what Naruto would see – himself as Hokage, of course. Sasuke…well, he was almost afraid to know what he would see if he ever found this place – most likely something rather bloody that had a certain weasel looking more like a pincushion, most likely. Harry was well aware that, even though he was not quite as bent on revenge as he would have been without Harry's intervention, if Sasuke saw Itachi again, he wouldn't hesitate to extract it. However, that really wouldn't help Harry in getting the kid to stay whole and sane.

Harry, however, was unsure of what he would see. Since that life-altering moment, Harry hadn't thought of the sorts of things he wanted, so focused was he on helping his brothers. What he would see would be a mystery to him – and he was, dare he say it, almost…afraid, to see what he wanted most in the world. Such desires were powerful things.

"Curious, said the cat, before it walked into the Kekkai Hojin," Harry muttered softly to himself with a slight shake of his head. Still, almost against his will, he found himself looking into the mirror, half afraid, half desperate to see what it was he really wanted in his life.

And froze.

Harry stood there, wide eyed and pale, despite the fact the invisibility cloak was still draped over him. But he wasn't alone. In the mirror, Harry could see Naruto grinning and laughing, waving at him, while on mirror-Harry's other side, Sasuke was smiling up at him in a way he hadn't done since the day he had learned the Gokakyu no Jutsu from him. His dark eyes held none of the sadness, sorrow and anger that were present in them now. Even when he was happy, it was present – heavily muted, but still there. But this Sasuke was waving just as happily and energetically as his blonde foster-brother. And, standing behind Harry, with a gentle hand on his shoulder and another reaching over to playfully poke Sasuke in the forehead and ruffle his hair was-

Whatever he thought he would see, this wasn't it.

It was Itachi. Not the Itachi that was covered in blood and glared down at him with blazing Mangekyou Sharingan eyes, but the slightly reserved, yet caring elder cousin that Harry had looked up to, the man who Sasuke had wanted to be like. The man who Harry had always seen as his own older brother when his uncle had ignored him. And there he was, just like then, the reassuring presence; the person whom they had always known would be there for them. The one they would never see again.

Harry pulled away, squeezing his eyes shut in an effort to shut out the image. So that was what he wanted? He wanted them to all be together again, like a family and to see the shadows banished from their eyes? He wanted the Itachi-itoko back with them who would ruffle his hair and tell him 'do me proud'?

Harry drew a breath shakily and glanced back at the mirror, his face emotionless and cold.

"Its nothing more than a useless fantasy." Harry whispered to himself icily, pulling his cloak around himself and turned away, slipping out of the room that, hopefully, he wouldn't walk into again without good reason, spiriting back up to the tower once more. What was the point on dwelling over something that would never happen, that could never happen?

When Harry had slipped back into the Gryffindor tower, the fat lady surprised but surprisingly lenient for having seen a student out of bed past hours, Harry crept back up to the dormitory and made his way over to the bed. However, he made no move to get into it as he gazed down at his brothers lying at the bottom. As usual, Naruto was sprawled out, his arms and legs spread-eagled – on arm drooping over the side of the mattress. His mouth was open and he snored quietly. Sasuke lay next to him, curled up into a ball around a pillow like a cat. Looking down at him, he looked so innocent lying like that.

Carefully, Harry sat down on the bed, smiling fondly at Naruto, who looked completely oblivious to the world, probably dreaming of being Hokage or something of equal interest. Harry looked at his other brother and carefully smoothed a lock of jet black hair out of the boy's face.

Sasuke stirred slightly, blinking up at him sleepily, eyes still half-closed and hazed with sleep. "…Ani…ki?" He muttered.

"Its okay, Sasu-chan. Go back to sleep."

"Don't call me…Sasu-chan…Aniki…" he muttered softly as he drifted back to sleep at the soothing stroking of his forehead in a rather parental fashion.

Harry smiled again softly at his sleeping brothers' faces.

_Even so, even if that image was merely a fantasy, one day, I'll see those smiles on your faces. Both you and Naruto… one day… Right, Sasuke?_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry stood on the platform with a small smile as Sasuke and Naruto both leaned out of the window of the train as it began to move off, waving merrily, and yelling to him goodbye and to remember to write. The genin couldn't help but chuckle softly as he saw Iruka's arms dart out to grab the back of their shirts in an effort to get them to sit back down in their chairs so they wouldn't fall, Naruto twisting back into the compartment to growl at the man.

Harry raised his hand in farewell with a smile.

Soon Sasuke had also ducked back into the window and out of sight, as a light snow began to fall, soft, white crystalline snowflakes drifting passed his eyes. Harry didn't move, just continued to watch the train as it disappeared around the corner of the station and out of sight. He stood there a few moments longer, alone on the platform, breathing out small, white puffs into the bitter air. Slowly, he slipped his gloved hand down to his side once more.

He blinked, and they were gone.

Harry sighed, a puff of dragon-like breath leaving his mouth and he pulled his jacket back around him once more, his wide smile slowly slipping off his face to a small one that was barely present. It had been fun, while the visit had lasted.

"Harry, come on, otherwise we'll be late!" Hermione, who had just arrived on the same train that was taking the two younger boys back to London, called to him, swinging her large suitcase around slightly as she turned.

"Hai," Harry called back and, with one last look down the track that was slowly whitening by the lazy drifting snow, turned and jogged to catch up with the wizard-students, disappearing into the whiteness as he returned to Hogwarts once more.

**TBC…**

**Naruto: **Ne, ne, don't leave just yet! There's one more goodie for you that we promised last time from Chosha Kurenai-san! Welcome to…

**Omake Theatre!**

**Uzuchiha Gaiden One: Harry's Payback**

**(AKA Snape's Theme Song)**

"You know, that Snape guy needs a theme song!"

"Eeeeeeh?" Harry and Sasuke looked at Naruto as if he had gone completely insane. "What the hell brought that up?"

"Well, look at the guy. All that dramatic stuff he does, storming round like that."

Sasuke looked at Naruto cross between laughing and telling the blond he was an idiot.

"Actually…he's right you know!" Harry said, touching his chin with a hand.

"Oh dear," Sasuke muttered, shuffling himself away. He recognised that glittery look in Harry's eyes. "You're gonna get in trouble again, Aniki."

Harry gave Sasuke a pouty look. "You have no faith in me, you know that?"

"I have reason to."

"What do you mean?"

"You put Frogs in my bed!"

"…You're still harping on about that?"

Just then, Ron entered the great hall. Seeing Harry and his brothers, they quickly rushed over and sank into a seat next to his best friend, whipping his brow with a hand.

"Hey Harry, I was wondering where you guys were. I've been looking for you for ages. It was only by chance that I saw that Iruka guy and he mentioned that you might be in the Great Hall." He looked over at them. "What've you been doing anyway? You've been gone for hours."

"Snape looks like Batman!"

Ron looked at Harry incredulously at the rather sudden and random comment.

"Who?" Ron choked out.

"Batman," Harry repeated as-matter-of-factly. "He's a Muggle superhero. He wears all black with a cape that tends to billow around behind him as he stalks the villains in the night, saving the city from evil and so on and so forth."

Ron almost fell to the floor. "You can't be serious!" he choked out. "Snape? Professor Sourpuss, The-World-Is-Nothing-More-Than-An-Annoyance-And-I'm-A-Complete-Sadist Snape? Saving people?"

At that moment, the doors opened and both Sasuke and Naruto turned up to look at where Snape had just come into the room, his robes billowing out behind him once again.

"Eeeeeeh?" Naruto exclaimed. "Ne, Sasuke! He does look like Batman!"

Sasuke squinted up at the man. "You know, Aniki's right, he does look like Batman. He's got the whole black-cape crusader thing going for him."

"Except for the nose," Harry finished, arms crossed and nodding to himself. "Now that looks more like the Penguin"

"But he's got the whole Batman thing down" Naruto agreed, nodding energetically.

"That must be his theme tune!"

"What on earth are you guys going on about?" Ron exploded, looking as though he thought his friend and said friend's younger siblings had spontaneously lost their marbles

"Man, you wizard guys are clueless!" Naruto half yelled. "How can you have not heard of Batman? Hell, even we get Batman back home!"

"Oh, ho!" Harry suddenly jumped up, his eyes glittering mischievously. "I just got an idea!" Harry said in a sing songy voice. "I've been waiting for a good chance at payback after that first Potion's class!"

"Oooooo, me too, me too! I wanna help, Niisan!" Naruto cried, jumping up and down excitedly.

Sasuke suddenly smirked. "You'll need someone with brains for this, Harry. I'm in too."

"Hey, are you trying to say I have no brains?" Naruto growled.

"You were the one who said it, not me."

"Hey!"

"Maa, maa, no need to fight, Ototo," Harry slung his arms over the boys' shoulders. "We've got a surprise to plan!"

Both boys immediately perked up. Harry jumped up, one foot on the table and, pointing to the door with a dramatic pose yelled, "To the Library!"

All three boys bounded out of the room, wide Uzumaki-style prankster grins on their faces. Ron suddenly covered his head protectively and sank behind the table. "Oh bloody hell, its Halloween all over again!" he looked as if he wanted to curl up into a ball, cover his head with his hands and rock in a corner.

(The next day)

Harry was cheerfully eating his breakfast when a low, musical tune suddenly made it to his ears and he froze, his fork halfway to his mouth. A moment later the jolting tune increased in volume and the hall quickly quieted as it caught the students' attentions.

"Is that…Batman?"

Harry glanced to the one who spoke, recognising a Muggle-born Hufflepuff Justin Finch-Fletchley. Only a Muggle-born student would likely recognise the tune in the first place if Ron's reaction a few days ago was any indication.

"It is Batman." An older Ravenclaw student said, twisting in her seat to look at the side door from which the music blared. Harry didn't dare move lest he draw attention to himself. Attention he most certainly wasn't interested in.

Harry leaned over to his little brothers. "You think he noticed?"

"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THE PERSON WHO DID THIS I SWEAR I'LL TURN YOU ALL INTO POTIONS INGRIENTS!"

"Yep, he definitely noticed, Aniki."

Suddenly, the doors burst open. The entire hall fell silent, all turning to look at whom had entered. Harry risked a glance over his shoulder at the fuming man who was now standing in the doorway, heaving for air in fury. Snape stood just inside the doorway, his face whiter than usual and his glare more ferocious than Harry ever really remembered seeing it. It was as if the air was static and he was wreathed in flames- 

He was also dressed in the Batman outfit, complete with cape, mask and utility pouch. Hell, he even had the pants over his trousers part!

His eyes rounded onto Fred and George sitting a little further down the table. "WEASLEEEEEEEY!"

The twins looked at each other, suddenly scared.

"But, honestly Professor-"

"We didn't do it-"

"We haven't even though Pranks in three days-"

"We swear, Professor!"

"Swear on this you little ingrates! 100 points from Gryffindor and get back here now otherwise I'll hang you up by you thumbs in the Dungeons!"

Fred looked at George. "Do you think he's serious?"

George looked at Snape, then back to his brother. "I think he's serious."

"Eep!" the Twins leaped up from their seats and bolted as the snarling batman-dressed Professor suddenly started throwing a volley of spells at the boys. There were squawks of horror and several people (including Harry and his brothers) ducked under the table as a spell missed the twins, leaving a smoking scorch mark where the spell had struck the wood. "Professor, Sir, be reasonable!"

"I'LL SHOW YOU REASONABLE!"

"Waaaah, we've been framed!" The Twins howled as the darted out of the room, followed by a fuming professor screaming "Stand still while torture you slowly and painfully!"

The whole room went silent, except for the still blaring Batman-theme that seemed a little out of tune as it raised and softened in volume as Snape chased the poor unfortunate Weasleys through the halls of Hogwarts. Slowly, students appeared from behind their tables.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" asked Naruto nervously.

"They do pranks even more than Aniki. They should be fine…? I think," Sasuke somehow managed to make that seem more like a question.

"See, I told you his theme should be Batman," Harry told his brother's proudly. He snickered as his brothers and Ron (whose hair was still smoking slightly from a curse he had only just managed to dodge) groaned loudly. "I love payback!"

**Omake Theatre! Uzuchiha Gaiden: **

**Owari**

**Japanese translations**

-Chan – suffix meaning little or dear

-Kun – used amongst male students. Indicates familiarity (or superior to inferior, like teacher to student)

-San – Mr, Mrs Miss, Ms

Sensei – teacher

Aniki – Brother, Bro (i.e. big brother)

Niisan – big brother, older brother

Itoko – cousin

Ototo – little brother

Baka – idiot

Hai – yes

Teme – a very rude way of saying 'you', often translated to 'bastard'

Meri Kurisumasu – Merry Christmas in a Japanese accent

Sugoi – cool, wow

Kage Bunshin – shadow clone

Kawarimi – replacement

Kakuremino no Jutsu - 'cloak of invisibility technique' – an optical illusion-based jutsu – think how Naruto hid behind a fence-patterned sheet in episode one.

Tochan – Dad, daddy

Urusai – shut up

Kibaku Fuda – exploding tag

Kekkai Hojin – barrier encampment method (a type of trap that explodes when the person walks into the marked out area.)

Owari – end

**Chosha's Notes**

Woah, that was a really weird chapter. A right weird mix and it got so…well…serious at the end! Oh well, I couldn't help but do that last bit after the Mirror, it was a rather cute little picture in my mind and NO it wasn't yaoi in any shape or form! It was purely brotherly. I know I wrote 'in a parental fashion, but I just wanted to make it very clear at this point. I don't mind reading yaoi, but in this fic Harry's relationship with Naruto and Sasuke are purely on sibling level. Just to keep that clear.

Oh, the Omake theatre was based during the holidays, as I'm sure you gathered, seeing as Naruto and Sasuke were in it and at Hogwarts. It was just an idea I had, put it seemed a little too wacky and slightly OOC to put into the actual story, so I decided to do this extra. Well, It was funny in my mind, but I dunno how it comes across to you…

Anyways, please review, I love to know what you think. And I don't mind long reviews, if your worried about that, I find them really interesting to read. Oh yeah, and to Red Dragon's Order, no that wasn't the last time he appears. You know who I mean, don't you Red Dragon's Order-san?

One last thing to do!

**Preview of the next episode**

**Harry:** things are really starting to get more and more weird. A mystery is beginning to unravel.

**Dumbledore:** A shadow in the forest. Two faces each telling their own tales of darkness and deep blazing scarlet stirs in the shadows. What secret is held in the depths of desire? Next episode, Philosopher's stone: Third Seal – Kurenai.

**Harry:** Whatever happens, I won't let my friends die!

By the way, Kurenai means 'crimson'. But, until next time, Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	9. Chapter 8: Philosophers Stone: 3rd Seal

**Uchiha Potter**

**by**

**Chosha Kurenai**

**Beta'd by Paradox Of Life**

**Chosha's Notes**

_Edit: Beta'd by Paradox Of Life - 12th October 2011_

Yo, Chosha Kurenai here! Welcome back everyone to Uchiha Potter!

I'm really glad everyone liked the Omake – I just thought it was amusing – especially with a lot for people comparing him to a bat and all anyway (in Harry Potter, or in HP fanfics anyways). I have a few silly Omake ideas for the story for future chapters but if anyone has suggestions for more, I'll be happy to write, or upload any if someone emails on to me. by the way, is anyone else not recieving reviews via email at all? I can only check them if I look on the story itself...

Oh yes, just a reminder. Anything that I have missed out, unless stated otherwise in this chapter, just means that basically the same thing happened as in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but I was too lazy to type out again. Just think about it, what's the point of repeating all that again, except to make the story way too long!

"_Blah"_ means something is spoken in Japanese, in case anyone forgot, too.

So, with that sorted, how about we get to the good part, ne?

**Disclaimer:** Naruto and Harry Potter are in no way, shape or form mine. (Pouts).

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**

Harry got his first Quidditch Match, although that didn't go smoothly. Then Christmas came and Naruto and Sasuke, accompanied by Iruka visited at Hogwarts. Harry got an Invisibility cloak that once belonged to James (Uchiha) Potter and discovered that his greatest desire is for his family to be happy and that Itachi had never betrayed them. Knowing it is nothing more than a fantasy, Harry vows that he will still get Naruto and Sasuke to be happy again.

**Chapter eight:**

**Philosopher's stone: Third Seal – Kurenai**

It had been some time since Hermione and the other students had returned to Hogwarts for the next term. Of course, that also included Malfoy and his lackeys had also returned ("all good things come to an end I guess," grumbled Ron.) Hermione, of course, was filled in on everything that had happened involving Harry and his younger brothers. She was a bit put out, partly because Hermione was still intrigued about Harry's younger brothers that she had met only in passing, and partly because that, apart from the one time where Harry had been looking in the Library under his invisibility cloak, they had not actually spent any time looking for Flamel.

"But Hermione," Ron whined, "there was so much other cooler stuff going on!"

Which promptly got him hit over the head by a grumpy Hermione.

It was almost a month later when the search for Flamel finally became fruitful. The three of them had been reduced to searching books in the few ten minutes between lessons. Harry's time had been cut even shorter due to Wood, who was desperate to win the Quidditch cup this year, having bombarded the whole team with more practices than even Harry gave himself for his shinobi studying. The poor Weasley twins were reduced to dive-bombing each other during practices because of facing the withdrawal symptoms from not having any time to prank anyone. Wood had lost it with them and inadvertently revealed that Snape was going to referee the next Quidditch match.

Although Harry found this a little unfair, due to the fact that Snape would definitely be dead set against the Gryffindor side (thankfully, they were playing Hufflepuff and not Slytherin – not that the Hufflepuff team were bad – quite the opposite. No, it was just that Snape would definitely have favoured the Slytherins, even if they had committed all seven hundred Quidditch fouls.) Both Hermione and Ron, who still seemed to think that it was Snape who tried to kill him on that first Quidditch match, were dead set against Harry playing in case Snape 'attempted to do him in again'.

"I really don't know why you guys are getting so uptight about all this," Harry grumbled from his place draped over the sofa, looking at them with one eye closed as he yawned and scratched behind his head with one hand.

"How can you be so calm?" Ron goggled at the raven-haired boy. "Unless you forgot, the guy hexed your broom!"

"You think he did," Harry pointed out. "Look, I know the guy hates my guts and takes points off of people unfairly, has hair greasy enough that it could silence at least ten squeaky doors and is complete bastard with no life except to make everyone's life miserable…where was I going with this again?"

Despite the seriousness of the convocation, both Hermione and Ron rolled their eyes, quite used to Harry's weird quirks in his personality by now, and Hermione said dryly, "Snape and the match."

"Yes, well, anyways, I just don't know if it was Snape that did it."

"Harry, I know a jinx when I see one," Hermione told him seriously after sharing a glance with Ron. "I've read all about them. You have to keep eye-contact and Snape wasn't blinking."

"Yeah, mate he was, like, muttering non-stop under his breath! If that ain't casting a curse, then I dunno what is."

"Aaaah, but not everything's as it seems, ne," Harry said in a sing songy voice.

However, before Ron and Hermione had time to yell at him that this was no time to play silly cryptic games and to take this seriously, there was a large crash behind them. Everyone spun round; Harry's hand already halfway to his kunai pouch, only to pause at the sight that met his eyes. There, lying sprawled across the floor was Neville, his legs locked together completely due to some sort of curse. From the rumpled clothes to the slight redness on his forehead and nose, it was obvious that Neville had had to bunny hop the whole way to the tower and must have already had several other up-close and personal meetings with the floor.

Everyone collapsed to the floor laughing, while Neville's face grew redder and dipped towards the carpet. Harry, glaring fiercely at everyone until they cut themselves off with one of his darker Glares, quickly rushed over to the boy to help him to right himself, while Hermione muttered a quick spell under her breath to cancel the Leg-locker curse. Neville shot them a tearful, yet grateful smile.

"What happened?" Hermione asked kindly as she and Harry led a slightly shaky Neville to sit on the sofa that Harry had just vacated.

"Malfoy," he answered shakily. "I met him in the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice on."

Harry almost growled and wondered if Dumbledore would mind ever so much if a student went missing, because the next time he saw Malfoy he was going to kill him! Or at the very least rethink tying him in up by his ankles to a tree in the middle of the Forbidden Forest for a few days. Because no one hurt Harry's friends and got away with it!

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione was urging the boy. "Report him!"

Neville shook his head, his eyes hidden behind his bangs as he stared down at his hands. "I don't want any more trouble." He murmured.

"You sound like you've given up already," Harry snapped suddenly. Neville jumped and looked up at Harry, wide-eyed. "Listen to me. If you just stand by and let them trip, belittle you and pull you down, then what's stopping them from doing it again and again?" Neville stared at Harry; tears in his eyes as he stood looking down at Neville with shadowed eyes. Carefully, he knelt down and looked Neville in the eye in a way he had done with both his brothers when he wanted to show them he meant every single word he said. "No one stays weak forever, Neville-_kun_. Strength isn't something we're born with, no matter what anyone says. Strength is something that we must work on over time. But to achieve that strength, you need to believe in yourself, in your own strength and power. After all, there was a reason that _Boshi-san_ sorted you into Griffindor."

Neville's eyes were wide; shining overly bright as what Harry said began to sink in. "Harry, I-"

Harry beamed at Neville and stood once more, ruffling his golden hair. "Here," he threw him one of his last chocolate frogs to the boy, who caught it clumsily. "Next time, make sure you're the one sending him splat on his face, ne?"

Neville brushed his eyes with a slight laugh at the picture of the 'Slytherin Prince' flat on his face and unwrapped the frog. Before heading up to bed, he gave Harry the chocolate Frog collectable card, trotting off to the dormitories, looking a little happier than before. With a small smile at the retreating boy's back, Harry absently studied the card (the face of Dumbledore looking up at him curiously) and flipped it over to see what it had to say about the old man. He choked when he read exactly what the card said.

"Flamel!"

"What?" Hermione and Ron suddenly jumped up in surprise. The two of them practically surging towards him, snatching the card out of his hand and reading what was written there. Suddenly Hermione's eyes lit up to dazzling levels and she darted back up to her room, yelling at the two of them to stay where they were, leaving Ron and Harry to share mystified looks and Harry to wonder when Hermione had reached the speed of a genin. A few seconds after that thought crossed his mind, Hermione came back down, taking the steps two at a time. She was carrying a big, thick book that put the Quidditch Through The Ages to shame.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

Everyone fell over.

"Light_?"_ choked Ron. Hermione told Ron to be quiet. She then returned searching through her book, mumbling to herself. At last she found what she was looking for.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

"Are we aloud to speak yet?" Ron grumbled to Harry.

"Mind elaborating?" Harry asked, seeing as Hermione was still chanting 'I knew it!' and seemed to have forgotten the two boys were standing there.

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

There was a pregnant pause. If Harry didn't know any better, he was sure there was a whistling of wind and a rolling dust-ball bouncing away in the draft.

"The what?" Asked Ron.

Hermione crashed to the floor. Obviously this wasn't the answer that she was looking for from them.

"Honestly, don't you two read?" She clucked when she had recovered and roughly pushed the book onto Harry's lap. Blinking, Harry leaned over and read:

_The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. _

_There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight.)_

Harry let out a long low whistle.

"See?" said Hermione. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from dying!" said Ron. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."

Harry just hoped that no one from the Hidden Countries knew about this. Who knew what it would be like trying to defeat a shinobi that just wouldn't die? He sighed in exasperation. Nothing was ever simple, was it?

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The next few days were interesting. He had played his second Quidditch match, having defeated Hufflepuff and got through unscathed in record time, having not been hexed again (although Ron had said it was because Dumbledore had come to watch that Snape had been unable to hex him.) During which Ron and Neville had fought Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle – Neville was forced to stay in the Hospital wing for a while before he regained consciousness. But not before Ron had given Malfoy a black eye (and ended up with a heavy nosebleed, although he said it was worth it) and Neville had at least managed to get a few in before he was knocked out. Harry made sure to visit his friend a few times.

However, as Harry had stated before, Murphy's law seemed to have an obsession with the raven-haired genin, and once more decided to come into play. This time, it was when Harry and his friends found another creature hiding within Hogwarts, or in this case, Hogwarts' grounds. This time, however, it wasn't a three-headed dog like the one believed to be on the third floor, but a dragon. Said dragon hatched from its egg at Hagrid's hut shortly after Harry, Hermione and Ron had found out about it when Hagrid reluctantly agreed to tell them a little about the enchantments guarding the stone.

Apart from the fact that it was plain stupid to have something even more of a pyromaniac than Harry living in something that could easily be reduced to firewood, it was a well-known fact (according to Ron, seeing as Harry was just looking at him cluelessly) that dragon breeding was outlawed in England. So how the hell Hagrid had managed to get a dragon in the first place and had thought it was a good idea to raise it in a wooden house was beyond him.

What was worse was, despite Harry constantly telling his friends to lower their voices if they had to persist in talking about the Dragon (that Hagrid had named 'Norbert'), Malfoy had somehow managed to overhear about Hagrid having a Dragon and had seen it hatch through a window. Harry quickly assessed that Hagrid would be punished heavily if it were found out and, seeing as Harry liked the man, despite his odd sense in pets (first Fluffy, now Norbert!) Harry had suggested that they give the newborn dragon to Charlie, Ron's brother, who, if he remembered rightly, worked with dragons in Romania. Soon, Ron had sent a letter with Hosenka (Harry had allowed her to be borrowed, as she was much faster than the school owls and used to flying long distance) to ask Charlie to take the dragon off their hands.

It was a week later when they received the reply. The only problem was that they needed to get the dragon to the tallest Astronomy tower to give to Charlie's friends at midnight. Even worse was that, when Ron had been bitten by Norbert and had no choice but to go to see Madame Pomfrey about it, seeing as it was beginning to swell up like a balloon and turn an odd green colour, Malfoy had come and 'borrowed' one of Ron's books as an excuse to come and laugh at him. He taunted the boy on telling the teachers just what it was that had bitten him. Unfortunately, the book he took had the letter from Charlie asking for the dragon to be at the top of the tallest tower at midnight Saturday was inside, so now the Slytherin knew their plans too.

Harry was seriously wondering how he had managed to make friends with a guy who was so stupid to not have burned the note or otherwise destroyed it. Goes to show you that not everyone was cut out to be a ninja. However, he tried not to be too hard on the boy, since he was still very ill from the bite and stuck in the hospital wing.

However, Harry still had his trump card of the invisibility cloak, even if that meant showing it to Hermione, seeing as they needed two people to carry the dragon and Ron was still stuck in the hospital wing. Harry couldn't help but sigh however, wondering whether any of the other Genin back in Konoha was receiving such whacked out missions as Harry seemed to be doing.

Saturday finally came and Harry and Hermione were at Hagrid's hut and sweat-dropping as Hagrid continued to mother the poor dragon despite the fact it was already waiting in a large crate for them to transport.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," Hagrid told them in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

Harry gave Hagrid an incredulous look as a tearing sound came from the crate. "You might want to scratch the bear from the list, Hagrid-_san_," Harry laughed nervously.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed as Harry tossed the invisibility cloak over them with practised ease from using Kakuremino no Jutsu at the academy. "Mommy will never forget you!"

From somewhere in front of Hagrid, there was a loud spluttering sound that sounded a little like Hermione.

"Mommy?" Harry's disembodied voice choked.

Even with Harry's Taijutsu training and a spare set of hands, getting Norbert up to the tallest tower was easier said than done. Even when Harry - who had most of the layout of Hogwarts committed to memory from the times he and the Weasley twins had played pranks and such - had taken them down the quickest routes, it was still difficult sneaking around with a big hulking crate filled with a small but heavy dragon.

There was a sudden movement and, even though they were invisible, Harry put a hand over Hermione's mouth so she would not make a sound. With a jerk of his head, he guided them backwards into a nook so as not to be in range for collision by whatever it was that was moving towards them. The shape and movement of the shadows looked almost like two people grappling at each other. Abruptly a light flared, causing their eyes to sting at its suddenness.

There was McGonagall, dressed in a tartan dressing gown and a hairnet and had a squirming Malfoy by the ear. Her face was contorted in anger.

"Detention!" she was yelling as she pulled the boy along. "And Twenty Points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-"

"You don't understand, Professor," Malfoy whined painfully. "Harry Potter's (Harry grimaced at his stubborn refusal to at least call him Uchiha) coming – he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!" the voices died away as they descended the stairs.

After that, knowing that the rest of the way to the tower was clear, it seemed that getting the crate up the spiralling stairs was much easier. It wasn't until they had reached the top, however, and that Harry had pulled the cloak off of them that Hermione danced an odd little jig with glee. Harry watched her in amusement, having never seen the studious girl act so childish.

"Malfoy got a detention!" Hermione quietly squealed in delight. "I think I could sing!"

"Don't," Harry advised her, although he thought it would be funny to see her do just that. "We haven't got through this yet. We still need to get rid of Norbert and get back to the common room without anyone spotting us."

It was about ten minutes later, sitting with a thrashing box-bound dragon and chuckling at odd occasions at the look on the Slytherin's face (_serves him right for what he did to Neville and how he was treating Ron at the hospital_, Harry thought, feeling an odd sense of justice. Perhaps he would thank Ron for not getting rid of that note later) when there was a movement in the sky. Harry watched as four small dots descended towards the tower, growing until Harry could make out four brooms. Realising these must be the friends that Charlie had spoke of in his letter, Harry jumped to his feet, followed by a slower Hermione, who had only just spotted them herself.

Charlie's friends were rather friendly and cheerful, despite the lateness of the hour and proudly showed them their harness for the crate as they buckled Norbert safely and securely with them between two of the brooms. After a quick shaking of hands and muttered thanks between them, the four friends jumped back on their brooms and were off into the sky, steadily shrinking as they disappeared from view.

Harry quickly grapped the invisibility cloak again and made Hermione – who was feeling very pleased with their task and had almost forgotten that they still weren't off the hook just yet – pause long enough to cover them with the cloak once more. Slipping back down the staircase, narrowly avoiding Filch, who was patrolling close by ("thank goodness you remembered that cloak Harry, otherwise we'd be in so much trouble!" – Hermione) they quickly made their way back to the common room once more.

Falling back on the comfy chairs and sighing in relief, Harry couldn't help but wonder what Iruka-sensei and his brothers would think if they heard of that little escapade. He wasn't sure if Iruka would have blown up at him for breaking almost all the school rules, or congratulate him on a (most likely C-class) mission well done.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Exams were coming up and everyone needed to study, especially with all the teachers clamping down on their subjects and piling them with homework. Even Harry had taken up studying from his notes and books, which sent his whole house into shock as it was well known that Harry never ever seemed to study despite his good marks. Even worse for Harry was that he had to split up his remaining free time between Quidditch and training.

It was about a week away before the exams were about to start and Harry was just on his way back from the library, where he had been giving back a book on Herbology, when a flash of chakra almost caused him to flinch back, his scar prickling. Up ahead, someone whimpered loudly.

"No – no – not again, please-"

_Quirrell?_ Harry wondered, moving a little closer, trying to ignore the pain in his forehead under his hitae-ate. It almost sounded like someone was threatening him. That strange chakra signature blazed once more and Quirrell suddenly began to sob.

"All right – all right-"

Harry suddenly had to jump back to avoid being run over by Quirrell, who dashed out of the room without even looking where he was going, his face ashen as he straightened up his turban. Harry looked back at him with narrowed eyes, before glancing into the room the man had just vacated. However, there was no sign of anyone else having been there.

_I wonder…just what's going on here? And what have you got to do with it, Quirrell-sensei?_

However, not even all the Kage Bunshin in the world could give Harry the time to investigate further into it other than tell Hermione and Ron about what he had seen, with the exams fast approaching, especially with the limited time he already had. In fact, Harry was now resorting to leaving a regular clone laying on his bed upstairs asleep (to conserve energy), which would give Harry an alibi as long as no one tried to touch him, and slipping out to the forest just before sunset to train, due to having no extra time.

This particular night began like any other. Harry had excused himself, saying he wanted to turn in early, and slipped up to the dormitories. Checking around, Harry quickly did the hand seals and an exact replica of himself stood in front of him. Bunshin-Harry turned to look at him with a nod, before taking up residence on the bed, curling up as if asleep.

Making sure no one was about to burst into the room, Harry pulled his invisibility cloak over his head, pushed open the window and spirited through it, his chakra-charged feet sticking to the cold stone walls as he ran, jumping the last few metres with a barely a sound. Making his way a little into the forest to a small clearing at the edge of the wood, Harry took a quick look over the area he had marked out as his own.

It wasn't much – there was a tree with a small branch that Harry hung a target from and was large enough to have a spar with one of his Shadow clones, or a group of them, if he wished. However, something caused him to pause as he reached the clearing. A breeze caused a faint, metallic smell to catch his nose. The smell was unmistakable. How could he not remember that coppery stench after the massacre and killing the troll?

It was blood.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise and he scanned the area, slipping out a kunai from his pouch when something caught his eye. Warily, Harry approached, all his senses on high alert in case it was some kind of trap. Something glinted in the fading light and Harry crouched down beside it, the scent of blood filling his nostrils.

But as clearly as it was blood, it clearly wasn't that of a human.

Pooled before him was a silvery substance like mercury, yet not quite as dense. Looking upwards towards the forest, the silvery-blood brushed against one of the trees. As his eyes followed, the blood splattered in a staggered line, going deeper and deeper into the forest.

"What's going on here?" he muttered, brushing his fingers over the silver coating part of the tree. If he remembered correctly from his book on 'Mystical Beasts and Where to Find Them', this had to be Unicorn blood.

_But what could have injured a Unicorn this badly?_ He wondered, looking around for clues. _Hagrid told me on one of my visits to his hut that Unicorns are really fast and can't be caught easily, even by a werewolf. There's something weird going on here…why do I get the feeling that this and the stuff to do with the Philosopher's Stone are linked?_

Harry slowly crept into the forest tracking the staggering trail of blood, kunai at the ready. With a quiet "Lumos," the tip of his wand glowed, casting a light onto his path, and glinting off the silvery liquid as the dying sun couldn't penetrate the thickness of the forest as he got deeper and deeper. The blood seemed to be getting thicker, there were splashes on the roots of the trees, as thought the poor creature had been thrashing in agony near by. Lifting his eyes, he could make out a clearing through gnarled oak-tree branches and – was that something white glinting through the branches just now?

Harry ducked under the branches and gazed down at the bright white animal lying in front of him, a deep sadness welling in his chest at the sight.

It was a Unicorn, gleaming pure pearl white. It could not be mistaken for an ordinary horse, even without its horn. Its mane was spread like a silvery rainbow over the leaves, its long, slender legs splayed on the ground. A wound tore at its side, mercury blood oozing down its side and over the scattered leaves. And looking at it, Harry couldn't think of anything more beautiful, and yet so very, very sad.

He was about to reach out and touch it when the sound of slithering reached his ears and he froze. Although Harry had never been into the training field called the 'Forest of Death', Harry had heard of many nightmarish stories of the snakes that lived in there that were as big as houses, and this sound didn't sound like your average grass snake.

He spun around as a bush at the edge of the clearing shivered…then, out from the shadows crawled some kind of hooded figure, though it looked more bestial than human. It bore down upon the unicorn and began to drink its blood. Harry began to slowly back away. He didn't want to be caught by this…thing. Especially it this was what had killed the unicorn.

Snap.

Harry looked down and blanched as a twig beneath his foot snapped loudly.

_Oh…kuso!_

The creature's head darted up, unicorn blood dripping down its front staining black silver. It got to its feet, then swept towards him. Harry jumped back, bringing up kunai and wand, when pain shot through his scar, causing him to stumble. Biting back the pain, he threw a kunai, half-blindly, to hear an unearthly scream and then, a flurry of hooves, galloping, something jumping over him, charging forwards.

Just as suddenly as the pain started it cut off. Harry blinked, staring at the scene in front of him. Where stood the cloaked creature now stood a creature that made his jaw drop open. At first, he saw a man with pale, almost white hair and a solemn face, astonishing blue eyes looking at him worriedly, as blue, if not more so, than Naruto's. And then he looked down. Instead of a pair of legs, Harry saw, from the waist down the body of a horse, its body a sleek palomino. He forced his mouth closed, instead looking at the ground, where his kunai stuck out of a tree root, part of the shadowy creature's cloak torn and pinned by the blade.

"Are you unharmed, young one?" asked the half-man, half horse (a centaur, the part of his mind that wasn't stunned provided).

"Yes. Thank you."

The centaur studdied him for a moment as Harry bent to pick up his kunai, before his eyes travelled to his forehead, where his now crooked hitae-ate clearly showed his scar. "You are the one who was lost to the Leaf, the Potter boy," he said, no awe or any of the other irritating things that most of the wizards did when they spotted his scar. Still, Harry's pale cheeks coloured and he pulled the hitae ate straight once more. "It is not safe for you here, especially at this time. Can you ride? It will be quicker that way."

Harry blinked in confusion, before he realised what the centaur had offered. "You want me to…are you sure?"

The horseman nodded and carefully lowered himself to the ground. Harry climbed on, careful not to hurt him. "I am Firenze," the centaur said.

"Harry Uchiha-Potter," Harry replied automatically, partly so that he would refrain from calling him Potter.

Firenze looked over his shoulder at Harry for as moment, then nodded and began to set off at a trot into the forest, back the way Harry had come. Harry kept low to the centaur's body to avoid being hit by stray branches.

"Uchiha-Potter," Firenze said suddenly, causing Harry to jump. "Do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

"Not really." Harry said slowly. "We use the horn and tail-hairs in potions, but I think it has some very strong properties, at least, that's what Hagrid-san has told me."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," Firenze said darkly. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure and defenceless to save yourself and you will have but a half life from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Harry stared at the back of Firenze head, dappled sliver in the moonlight.

"…Why are you telling me this?"

Firenze stopped as he came to the clearing that Harry used as his own and Harry slipped from his back, frowning at him as Firenze looked down at the genin solemnly. "Tell me, Uchiha-Potter, why would someone wish for such a life? What would be the reason for committing such a terrible sin – unless all you need is to stay alive enough to drink something else – something that would bring you back to full strength and power – something that means you will never die."

Harry's eyes widened in realisation. "The Philosopher's stone…" Something icy made its way down his spine. "So you mean that that thing back there was Voldemort? Hey, wait!" The centaur, which was about to canter back into the forest, paused, but didn't look back. "I owe you, Firenze-san. But won't you get in trouble with your clan? I hear centaurs make a very big deal about what they read in the stars."

Firenze looked back at Harry for a moment, a slight mysterious smile on his face. "I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Uchiha-Potter. With humans at my side, if I must." He turned and began to walk back into the shadows of the forest. "Good luck, Uchiha-Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I pray that this is one of those times."

And he disappeared into the forest, leaving a stunned shinobi behind, alone at the forest's edge.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The first thing Harry thought when he had laid eyes on the Cerberus that guarded the third floor was: _The Inuzuka would __love__ a dog like that_. Said thought was soon followed by the thought of: _Hagrid called __that__ thing __Fluffy._

Indeed, 'Fluffy' was not the first thing you would think of calling this creature. The beast was about as tall as the Troll on Halloween and twice as wide, three heads the size of a small horse each turned to look at them, feral eyes glinting bloodthirstily as fangs at least an inch in length dripped with saliva. It snarled and sniffed madly in their direction, despite the fact that they couldn't see the trio due to Harry's cloak. At its feet, a harp lay on its side and, further onwards, a trap door, obviously leading to the other enchantments that Hagrid had mentioned.

"Snape must have left it there," Ron muttered, seeing the Harp. Harry rolled his eyes at his persistence in saying it was Snape, despite evidence that it might be someone else.

"Looks like it wakes up when you stop playing," Harry noted. "Glad I remembered to bring the flute Hagrid gave me for Christmas, otherwise one of us would have to sing!"

That said, Harry pulled the flute out of his utility pouch and, closing his eyes, brought it to his lips. And began to play.

When Harry was small, Mitoko had taught Harry and Sasuke how to play the flute on one of the days that Fugaku was most fixated on Itachi. Now, for the first time since then, Harry played the tune that his aunt had taught to them, slowly, softly and unsure at first, becoming more confident as he continued. It was a slow, mystical tune that made the ears of the dog's three heads turn towards him and it immediately calmed, its growls fading into nothing as its ears remained pricked, listening intently to the sound. As he played, its eyes began to droop and it swayed slightly where it stood. It gave a soft, puppy-like whine as it teetered on its feet, slumping down to the ground, its eyes closing in oblivious sleep.

Harry continued to play, even after its soft snores began to fill the chamber. However, neither Ron nor Hermione had made their way towards the trap door yet. Turning, Harry noticed why – both children were transfixed by the tune and were listening as he played. Harry shot them a hard look that clearly said 'What are you guys waiting for? I'm not playing this for my heath you know!', jabbing Ron hard with his elbow. Ron yelped and went to growl something at the genin, until he noticed the raised eyebrow and tapping foot. Blushing, he slipped passed the Cerberus and, trying not to fall over Fluffy's leg, pulled up the trap door by its brass handle, and, peered inside hesitantly.

"What can you see?" whispered Hermione, eyeing the trap door anxiously.

"Nothing – just black. There's no ladder or anything to climb down, so it looks like we gotta jump," Ron muttered.

Well, even if he couldn't get out of leaving the two of them behind, he sure as hell wasn't going to let them break their necks by jumping at an unknown distance. At least Harry had training for this kind of situation. Quickly, Harry waved at Ron. Seeing he had his attention, Harry pointed to himself, then the trap door, then to the flute and pointed to Hermione. Ron looked at him blankly for a moment, before what Harry wanted dawned on him.

"You want to go first, and have Hermione keep on playing?" Harry nodded sharply, still playing. "Are you sure? I don't know how deep this thing goes…"

_That's the point, you twit_, Harry thought in exasperation as he passed the flute to Hermione. In the few seconds of silence, however, the three-headed dog began to growl and twitch. Hermione hastily began to play once more. The growls subsided, the movements ceased, the beast was still once more. Both Ron and Harry (Hermione was unable to, although her shoulders relaxed from their stiff posture) sighed in relief.

"That was close," muttered Ron.

Harry ignored him for the moment, focusing on trying to see the bottom of the trapdoor. However, like Ron had said, Harry couldn't see the shape of any ground below. He turned to the other two. "I'll go first. If I don't answer in ten minutes, go to Dumbledore or one of the other teachers if he's still at the ministry. Also send Manji to Dumbledore-sensei to get his butt back here," he gave them a cheeky grin. "- Politely, of course."

"Right," Ron said, although he still looked worried.

Harry nodded sharply and jumped.

Cold air rushed passed him as he fell, suddenly, Harry spotted something and got ready for impact-

Flump.

Harry found himself rolling from his landing down something soft and plant-like. It was also full of Chakra. Immediately, Harry knew that this thing wasn't just there to soften the landing.

Kunai in hand, Harry jumped up immediately, slashing at a vine that attempted to wind its way around his wrists, struggling onto cold stone floor. However, it looked as if the plant wasn't about to just let Harry escape, winding its way like writhing snakes towards him.

_Devil's Snare_, his mind supplied him with. _It likes dark and damp places, winding its vines around its victim in order to squeeze the life from it, like a snake._

_Dark and damp…_

Harry smirked. Now he knew exactly what to do in order to kill it. On instinct, Harry ran through the seals.

"**Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!**"

The bursts of fire shot from his mouth, pouncing upon the writhing vines, flames blazing hungrily as it burned away at the creepers. Wriggling and flailing it pulled away in a desperate attempt to escape the flames, but to no avail. The flames devoured the plant, leaving only a thick pile of ashes behind.

Harry leaned against the wall with a soft sigh.

"Harry? Harry! Are you all right? Harry?" the genin looked up from where he had jumped. Vaguely, he could see Ron's red hair peeking over the edge and the sound of distant music reached his ears.

"I'm fine!" Harry called back up. He quickly assessed if it was safe enough for the other two to follow. Although there was no plant any more, there was a large pile of ashes that would at least give them a soft, if slightly uncomfortable landing. "Its alright, it's a soft landing. If you're going to follow me, you can jump!"

It looked like Ron didn't need telling twice and he jumped, landing in the pile of ashes and almost disappearing in the black smog that jumped up from the impact, leaving Ron choking from the dust.

"You said it was soft!" Ron complained.

"Soft enough that you wouldn't die," Harry shrugged. "Never said anything about it being comfortable. Hermione, come on!"

The music suddenly cut off and there was a loud bark from behind as Hermione landed next to Ron in the same messy manner. She emerged from the dust rubbing her bottom with a wince, but otherwise didn't complain.

"You alright, Hermione-san?"

"I've been better," she grumbled.

Harry gave her a slight smile. "Good." He looked around the small stone room and spotted a stone passageway. Apart from the way they had come in, this looked like the only exit. "This way."

Harry led the way down the corridor, which sloped downwards, like the paths of Gringotts. Harry wondered how far under the school they had got now…

He paused as a sound reached his ears, holding up a hand to stop Ron and Hermione to walk into him. He cocked his head to one side and, closing his eyes, listened.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, not sounding quite as confident as usual.

Harry hushed them. "Listen… Hear that?"

"…What is that?" Ron said after a moment, straining to hear the sound.

"Sounds almost like the Snitch at close range," Harry muttered. He pulled out his wand; not wanting to draw attention to his other weapon's just yet. "Stay sharp."

They came to the end of the passageway and blinked in the bright light. They had reached a large room, light reflected in brighter patches from above, which moved around like a disco ball. Harry glanced up, his eyebrows shooting up to his hitae-ate. The chamber had a high, arched ceiling. Near the top, jewel-like birds flew together in a swarm. They fluttered and clicked as they flew in the air. Across the room, there was a big, heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we try to get to the door?" asked Ron, eyeing them suspiciously

Harry glanced up at them again. The birds looked innocent enough, but Harry knew from experience that looks could be deceiving. After all, he was brought up as a ninja, where deceiving the opponent while not being deceived yourself was common. But these birds didn't look as though they would be attacking, just fluttering about, glittering – hang on! _Glittering?_

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly, trying to looking at them a little more intensely than before, then he laughed, causing his friends to stare at him as if he had gone mad as he recognized the objects flying in the air. These things weren't birds! "They're keys!" he explained through his laugh. His eyes scanned the room again to find several brooms lying about. "And if I haven't missed my guess, I bet one of them opens that door."

It took a few moments. Ron examined the door-handle and told them to look out for an old, brass key. Seconds later, Harry spotted it, his eyes having become attuned to finding smaller objects by now – the snitch being prime example. After a wild case on the broom, the trio finally cornered the key long enough for Harry to snatch it out of the air and stuff it into the lock.

The next chamber was so dimly lit that even Harry could barely see what it was. However, there were strange shapes laying all about the place and Harry felt Hermione shiver next to him.

"It almost looks like some kind of graveyard," Harry said, looking over the odd looking shapes.

Ron squinted for a moment, then his eyes widened in realisation. "This isn't a graveyard," he exclaimed. "It's a chessboard!"

As if on cue, a light suddenly illuminated the room and Harry could clearly see the white and black human-shaped pieces. The white side blocked their way with crossed blades. The black side had three places missing on the board. "It looks like we might have to play ourselves across," Harry assessed.

"Sure looks like it," Ron said.

Harry sighed dramatically. "Great. Just when you need Sasuke, the brat's not here."

Ron glared slightly at the memory of the nine-year-old beating him. However, the moment passed and he said. "Well, no offence Hermione, but you kind of suck at it," Hermione blushed a little. "And I know you're quite good at chess, Harry, but I've played the longest, so you don't mind if…?"

Harry shrugged. This mission was a little more important than his pride after all. "Go ahead."

Ron, after a bit of hesitation, placed Harry as a bishop, Hermione as a castle and himself as a knight, climbing onto the back of a rider-less stone horse. After a few moments, the white pawn moved forwards two spaces.

Hermione shifted from foot to foot nervously on her square. "Do you think this is going to be like…like real wizard chess?" she asked.

Harry and Ron shared a glance. Ron swallowed and ordered a black pawn to move. Seconds later, a white pawn moved along side it. Two swords, which were tucked at the sides of the curled up faceless pawn, were drawn and, ruthlessly, sliced into the black pawn, reducing it to a crumbling heap in seconds, the room filled with a loud crash. Hermione jumped, staring in horror. Ron, white-faced, turned to look at her.

"I'd say this is…exactly like wizard's chess…"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry dropped to the redhead's side, quickly checking his vitals and, feeling his pulse and the rise and fall of his chest, couldn't help but sigh in relief. Unfortunately, Harry didn't know any healing jutsu – he made a mental note that that was the first thing he was going to look for once he got back to Konoha – but his vitals were strong. He was merely knocked out and would probably come out of this none the worse for wear, except for a big lump on the head and a slight concussion. Or brain damage.

He shook that thought out of his mind, reminding himself that half of Konoha must have brain damage if that was the case.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Hermione asked quietly, looking down at Ron's motionless pale face.

Settling the boy into recovery position to make him more comfortable, he put a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Ron-_kun_'s hard headed. He'll be fine, don't worry," Harry said, giving Hermione his most calming smile. _After all, I've been in worse fights at home and that's not even counting some of the 'training' I did with my instructors._ "But we need to keep moving. Ron-_kun_'ll probably be safer here."

As soon as he entered the next room, Harry immediately recognised the horrible stench that filled his nostrils and was about to run through a series of hand seals before his eyes fell on the cause of the smell. It was a troll, easily twice as big as the one Harry had fought. However, unlike that troll, this one was knocked out cold, a bloody lump on its head. Even Harry had to give a slight sigh of relief at that. Even with the skills he had now, Harry doubted he would have been able to tackle that one and get both himself and Hermione out alive… at least, not for a while yet. Quickly, they scooted across the room and through the door at the other end, if only to avoid that awful smell.

Harry kept Hermione behind him as they entered the next room, body tense, prepared for whatever might try and attack them next. But, there were no towering creatures or possessed games this time, just a line of different shaped bottles seated on a little table. Across the other side of the room was an open, door shaped arch.

As Harry, Hermione close behind, took a few cautious steps into the room, a fire sprang up behind them, blocking the doorway in flames. But it was no ordinary fire – the flames were violet! In the same moment, flames leaped up in the opposite doorway, Jet-black like flickering shadows.

"_Chikusho_!" They were trapped!

Trying to calm himself - after all, there was no one else in the room, which had to mean that Voldemort or his lackey had got through, so it couldn't be impenetrable – Harry looked around for some clue as to what the bottles were for. "Typical. I bet its Snape's. He just loves to make things difficult," Harry sighed.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles and unrolled it, eyes scanning the text. Harry looked over her shoulder.

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end, _

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight._

"Brilliant," Hermione cried happily, relief shining in her eyes. "This isn't magic – its logic – a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

_Heh, I got to hand it to him, that's a pretty good trick_, Harry thought with a smirk as Hermione re-read the paper a few times to work it out. _Everyone comes in here thinking it is some sort of spell, but it's a puzzle. If he weren't such a grease-bag, I bet he'd make a pretty good shinobi._ He couldn't help but chuckle. _He's still a bastard, though._

Hermione studied each bottle as she pursued the riddle once more. She circled the table, muttering to herself and occasionally pointing to a bottle or two as she deciphered each line.

"Any clue yet?" Harry asked.

Hermione clapped her hands. "Got it. The smallest one will get us through the black fire – towards the stone."

He picked up the tiny bottle and studied it critically. The bottle was cold to the touch, like ice. However, as he looked at the potion with it, it didn't look like there was much left. "There's only enough for one of us," Harry said, letting the potion slosh slightly against the bottle-sides. "Hardly a swallow."

And somehow, the only thing Harry could feel about it was…relief.

"So, which one gets you back through the purple flames?" he asked.

Hermione blinked, then pointed towards a rounded bottle at the end of the line. "That one."

"Alright, Hermione-san," Harry said, "this is important now. You use that potion and go back through the purple flames – No, listen to me," he added sharply as Hermione opened her mouth to exclaim something to him. His tone brooked no argument. "Go back, wake Ron-_kun_ up and use the brooms to get yourselves back out of the trap door. Send Manji to Dumbledore-_sensei_. I can hold off whoever this guy is for a while, but I may need back up."

"But Harry, what if You-Know-Who is with him?"

"Then I beat him up too – what do you think? Hermione-_san_, just go!"

Hermione's lip trembled for a moment and suddenly Harry yelped in horror as the girl threw her arms around him. Harry quickly flailed to disentangle himself, his eyes quite wide. _Oh Kami, don't give me another fan-girl!_

The girl, however, to Harry's eternal gratitude, pulled away (Harry sighed in relief), tears in her eyes. "You really are a great wizard, you know. J-just be careful, alright?"

Harry smirked at her. "Always. You drink first, Hermione-_san_."

After a little hesitation, mostly due to Hermione telling him good luck and take care until Harry had to yell the order to go, the girl drank the potion and disappeared into the purple flames. With Hermione gone, Harry turned his face to the flames and held up the potion, taking a deep breath. He knew what he was doing. His friends were civilians and, even though they could use magic, this was a fully-grown, fully trained wizard they would be up against. At least with Harry's shinobi training, he had the highest chance for survival out of all of them. He was not about to let his friends die because of poor leadership.

Taking a deep breath, his face slipped into a calm state as he threw back the potion, forcing himself not to shiver as the icy liquid slipped its way passed his throat. Eyeing the black flames for a moment, Harry nodded and walked through the flames. It was strange, surrounded by flames that licked at his body, and yet he felt nothing, like some kind of strange genjutsu. For a while, Harry could see nothing but the dark fire, then the flames flickered away and Harry found himself standing in another room.

The room was round, surrounded by towering pillars and lit by flaming torches. Somewhere standing at the back of the room, the gold glinting in the firelight, Harry's eyes widened. There, standing before him, was the Mirror of Erised and, standing in front of the mirror, stood a man dressed in a large purple turban, who turned towards him. The man's face flickered in surprise, before settling into a smirk. At no point, however, did he twitch at all.

"Heh, so I was right. It really is you, Quirrell."

Quirrell almost fell over. However, he recovered with surprising quickness. "Well, you are a cleaver little boy, aren't you, Potter," Quirrell said, his voice no longer stuttering. However, the only thing that caused Harry's eyebrow to twitch was the persistence in people who hated him calling him Potter. "You really are just too nosy for your own good!" He snapped his fingers.

Harry saw something shooting towards him out of the corner of his eyes and, immediately ducked out of the way as ropes attempted to bind him, rolling to his feet and quickly slashed at the ropes with his kunai as he leapt away. But the ropes caught up from another direction, yanking his arms above his head painfully. There was a metallic clatter as his kunai fell from his fingers at the shock. Harry gritted his teeth against a hiss of pain, narrowing his eyes against the stress in his arms.

Grunting in pain, Harry glared at Quirrell.

"You should never have come here, Potter," Quirrell growled. Harry almost rolled his eyes. He sounded like a villain off the old comics he remembered Naruto to have read - a rather pathetic cliché one to boot. "Now, be a good little boy while I examine this interesting mirror."

_Like hell I will_, Harry thought venomously. If Harry hadn't missed his guess, the mirror was obviously the key to getting the stone. And if Harry was going to prevent Quirrell from getting the stone, he at least needed to get out of these ropes. Harry glanced up at his bound hands and grinned. Quirrell had no idea just how easy he was making it for Harry to escape, binding his wrists together.

Quirrell wouldn't know what hit him!

While the professor was preoccupied as he started to get frustrated at his lack of progress with the mirror, Harry moved his hands into a simple hand-seal, moulding his chakra. He smirked. "**Nawanuke no Jutsu!**" he muttered and there was a poof of smoke.

Meanwhile, Quirrell really had started to get frustrated, muttering to himself a little louder now so that you could just hear what he was saying. "What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me master!"

"Use the boy…use the boy…" a low cold voice came out of seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once.

"Yes, Potter come he -!" suddenly he found himself knocked back as a open palm smashed into his face, sending him stumbling back, soon followed by a knee to the stomach. Quirrell stumbled back into the mirror, bracing himself on it while Harry skidded to a halt, kunai held defensively, wand pointed, ready to curse.

Quirrell stumbled to his feet, a hand over his bloodied face, crimson running down his chin through his fingers and dripping to the floor. "H-how? How'd you escape?" he gasped around the nosebleed.

"How?" Harry smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know!"

"Tch," Quirrell growled, his eyes looking over his weapons. "Do you seriously think a little piece of metal can stop me?" Quirrell laughed. "Even if you could get out of that rope, you're nothing but a half-trained wizard. You wouldn't stand a chance."

Harry didn't grace Quirrell with an answer, leapt forwards and ducked down as the man attempted to shoot a spell at him, driving his elbow straight into the man's stomach, who doubled over, winded. But he didn't finish there, he grabbed the man's arm, using it as a leaver as he swung himself upwards, and driving his leg down to strike the man on top of the head.

Two howls resounded through the chamber and Harry skidded away, eyes wide on the crouched over man. His face was in his hands and his body was shaking slightly. A dark chakra, vaguely familiar, began to flow from around him, far stronger than he had as of yet felt it that seemed to root him to the spot. The ever-present turban suddenly slipped and fell to the ground in a messy heap. From now-where, the cold voice hissed once again.

"Let me speak to him… face to face," whispered the voice in a dangerous tone.

"Master, you are not strong enough!" protested Quirrell; face still buried in his hands, a feeble attempt.

The dark chakra suddenly flared to intense ferocity. "I have strength enough… for this…"

The atmosphere around him suddenly seemed thick, heavy with tension and danger alarms went off in Harry's head, and his fingers trembled slightly on the kunai uncontrollably. Quirrell stood, head bowed and slowly began to turn around, until his back was facing Harry. It was all he could do not to stumble away, the hairs rising on the back of his head.

Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face he had ever seen. It was white as chalk and wraith-like, with serpentine slits for nostrils. But what alarmed him the most were his eyes staring down at him like some demon, its pupils slitted and cat-like. There were no tomoe, but his eyes were crimson red: the colour of blood.

A shadow of another face, another pare of crimson eyes seemed to overlap in his mind, spinning tomoe glaring down at him, a face splashed with gore…

"I…Itachi…"

The serpentine face smirked at Harry. "Itachi? No…do you not remember me? No matter… After all, ten years…is a very long time…isn't it, Harry Potter."

The name jerked Harry back to his senses. But it didn't stop the rage welling up within him. This man may have not killed his clan, but this man was the one responsible for the deaths of to the two people he had never had the chance to meet. "Voldemort…"

"So…you do remember?" Quirrell was walking backwards now, but Harry didn't move, his eyes fixed, emerald eyes blazing. "Do you see what I have become? Mere shadow and vapour… I have form only when I can share another's body… But there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own…"

"So, you were the one back there," Harry said coldly, "The one who killed the Unicorn."

"Indeed…" the face smirked, seeing that Harry had not moved from his position, even as Quirrell-Voldemort took another step forwards. "Yes, I very much value bravery, Harry Potter. Do not be a fool, however. It would be better to join me, than have your mother's sacrifice be in vain."

The sneering face of Voldemort twisted in confusion as suddenly, Harry's body began to shake, a dark chuckle escaping his throat. He raised his head, a humourless smirk on his lips and his green eyes blazing. "You can try, but I don't follow murdering bastards like you." The smirk dropped from his face. "I have people who are important to me – I won't let you get that stone. Not if it means their lives are forfeit!"

And with that, Harry sprang forwards; ducking as Quirrell aimed a spell at him at Voldemort's screamed order, followed by a volley of beams that made Harry have to dodge out of the way to avoid being hit and dived behind a pillar. Green energy slammed into it as Harry instinctively cast Flipendo on the pillar. He moved as it fell, the pillar almost dropping on top of Quirrell-Voldemort, but it was slow and Quirrell managed to dodge away in time, eyes blazing angrily.

He shot a spell at Harry, who had ran behind another pillar and the stone shook as the green beam hit. Harry ran to the next pillar, hoping to get behind the man in order to get close enough that the spells would not be effective in time before Harry would be able to defeat the man. He knew about that spell. The Killing Curse – if that hit him, he would die instantly. Right now, he couldn't get close enough that any of his jutsu, magical or chakra-based, would work. He darted to another pillar, propelling himself with chakra and a second, running behind them before any spell could hit.

Quirrell snarled. He shot a spell a little before the pillar Harry was going to next. Harry saw it, but he was going to fast to stop. At this rate he'd run straight into it! Harry swore and ran through a series of seals.

**Kawarimi no jutsu!**

The spell struck and there was a poof of smoke. Harry was no longer there, but a log, which shot backwards and slammed into the wall at the force of the spell.

Quirrell jumped, staring in shock at the fallen log and began to look around wildly for his suddenly vanished target, while Harry, who was now at the other side of the room, dashed forwards, his wand at the ready. "Petrificus Totalus!"

However, the spell didn't work. The man dodged out of the way, spinning around towards him with a dark gleam in his eyes. Harry realised his mistake instantly. This man had two faces – he literally did have eyes in the back of his head – of course Harry wasn't going to be able to hit him using such tricks.

A bright crimson light struck the pillar closest to Harry as he dodged another spell, but this time it didn't just ricochet off the stone, but smashed straight through it, slicing through the pillar. It teetered and began to tip over. Harry cried out as it began to fall, baring down upon him as it crashed, throwing up dust and debris. Harry barely managed to dodge, only to be met be another spell, a red beam, which sent him crashing back into the Mirror of Erised. Harry gasped out as he was winded, sliding down the mirror to the floor; his wand scooting across the floor as the force of the spell threw it from his grip.

Quirrell was upon him immediately, his hands scrabbling for Harry's neck, squeezing in an effort to strangle him. Harry choked; blood running down the side of his mouth as he tried to fight back, but Quirrell was heavier than he was, his weight pressing down on him. Harry suddenly became aware of burning flesh and his scar burst into intense pain. Quirrell-Voldemort dropped Harry and held up his hands, which were blistered and raw, as if he had placed them on an open flame, screaming loudly. Harry took the chance and planted both feet against Quirrell-Voldemort's chest and shoved hard. The man flew backward across the chamber and slammed into a far wall.

Harry pulled himself to his knees; his head bowed over as he panted heavily, trying to get his breath back as his scar twinged faintly burning from the contact with Quirrell.

Somewhere across the hall, Harry was dimly aware of what was going on between Quirrell and Voldemort.

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" Voldemort was screaming, his voice shrieking around the chamber over Quirrell's howls and sobs of pain.

"Master, I cannot hold him – my hands – my hands!"

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" Voldemort screeched

_Dammit, where's Dumbledore_, Harry thought blearily, his head swimming from almost being choked and the terrible pain from his forehead_. I…I can't let him get his hands on the stone, even if it's locked away in that mirror for now, who's to say he wont still get it, even if he does kill me. I need to stop him - I have to. If I don't…If I don't, Voldemort might hurt my friends, my precious people, again. I WON'T LET MY FRIENDS DIE!_

Harry pulled out his kunai, channelling his chakra down into his hands, into the blade itself so it glowed ice blue, and stabbed backwards, driving it straight into the mirror. Some sort of magic pulsed against his chakra, before bending. There was an almost audible snap. The kunai plunged into the mirror. There was a pause, suddenly the entire mirror smashed like a thousand chimes, scattering glass and debris over the floor. The blade dove deep into a blood red stone, driven through it, a steel stake through a ruby heart. The Stone – the Philosopher's Stone, pulsed, then exploded into tiny pieces, scattering to the winds.

"The Stone!" screeched Voldemort.

Harry lips quirked upwards, his hair covering his eyes. "So much for creating a new body. But it ends here. Now…" Harry raised his head and Quirrell's eyes widened and he stumbled back, staring at him in shock. "I'll kill you!"

"His eyes…" Quirrell stuttered, staring at Harry

"Kill him, fool! KILL HIM!"

Harry darted forwards, snatching up his wand once more and shot a Diffindo curse at Quirrell, who only just managed to dodge it, staring at Harry as if suddenly terrified of the boy. He shot a string of curses at Harry, who dodged them all with surprising ease, the attacks heading towards him as if in slow motion. Everything seemed sharper, more focused, he could see the tiniest of detail from the beads of sweat forming on Quirrell's forehead, to the glow at his wand as it built up magical energy to attack.

Quirrell charged blindly at Harry, leaping at him so that Harry couldn't dodge. Instead, Harry allowed himself to fall backwards, skidding over the floor as Quirrell attempted to pin him down again; screaming in pain as Harry blocked his hands. Where Harry's skin touched Quirrell's, it smoked and burned, igniting the pain in Harry's scar. Squinting through the pain, he could almost see his skin flare like white flame as Quirrell touched, burning the other man. Harry caught him with a blow to the face, sending Quirrell crashing and skidding through shards of sharp glass.

Rolling up to defensive position, Harry stared at his own hands for a moment. _How…how did I do that?_ He wondered briefly, but the thought was pushed from his mind, a plan already forming. He clamped a kunai in his jaws and started forwards.

Quirrell's head whipped up to see Harry darting towards him, kunai in his mouth, eyes gleaming in that – that way and he panicked, shooting a volley of curses that Harry dodged and ducked. The professor let out a cry and ran at him. Harry ducked down and swung up his leg, crashing it into the jaw of the man, sending him scooting across the room, but he didn't stop there. With a burst of chakra through his feet, he leaped over, crashing his leg down, sending him crashing to the ground. He followed, pinning his arms to the floor with his knees. Quirrell's screams resounded through the chamber as Harry palm slammed his head into the floor, his hand gripped tightly on the teacher's forehead as he screamed.

"Master! MASTER!" Quirrell cried in pain, fear and despair.

"KILL HIM, KILL HIM!"

Harry pulled the kunai from his mouth with his free hand, unable to stand the terror in the other man's voice, the torturous screams, even if the man was an enemy. If he had had any other choice, he would have taken it. But Harry knew from the moment he saw Voldemort producing from the back of his head that Quirrell was too far gone – he could not be saved. All he could do for him now…was end it.

_I'm sorry_…

"Die."

And he swept the kunai down, plunging it into his chest. Ribs cracked under steel, piercing through muscle. Quirrell stiffened, one last dying scream erupting from his throat.

But it wasn't over.

A second howl, more terrifying than the cry of death joined the first. Something moved, under Harry's blade. His eyes widened and he threw himself backwards with a cry, just as a burst of grey chakra shot from the man's chest, the deformed face of Voldemort, blazing crimson eyes willing nothing more than painful death on the genin as it shot upwards, a searing scream erupting from its mouth. It burst through the ceiling, even as the last of Quirrell's life was snuffed out.

The room fell silent as a tomb but for shaky gasps of breath coming from the genin, who was currently laying in the middle of the floor, white as a sheet, a blooded kunai held in a shaking pale hand. He lay there for some time, unmoving but for the trembling as the adrenaline ran though his system.

The silence was almost deafening.

Slowly, Harry pushed himself to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut against the sick feeling in his chest, as though he wanted to throw up, retching dryly as it struck him – finally struck him – what he had just done. He'd just killed someone. Not an animal, not a Troll, but a human - even if Voldemort possessed him. And Voldemort just got away. Dammit!

_Breathe… _The more practical part of his brain that hadn't seized up told him. _Just breathe… Remember what you were taught… just focus on breathing, on the sound of your heart. In… out… in… out..._

Slowly, the clenching of his stomach calmed itself; the shivering lessened. Slowly, he opened his eyes, finding himself staring down at blood-stained stone and scattered shards of glass. It was nothing more than normal mirror shards now it was broken, it didn't have that static feel of magic, nor did it have the soft glow around it that he had seen, seconds before he destroyed it. As he finally got himself back under some sort of control, something in those shards told him something was…not quite right about the refection looking up at him. And jerked back in surprise.

His face looked back up at him, pale, scratched, hair matted by dust and debris, a smear of blood blurred at the side of his mouth. But what caused him to gasp were his eyes. No longer were they a brilliant so-green-they-were-almost-black emerald, but now a blazing crimson, two tomoe in the left eye, one in the right.

"S-sharingan…?" he breathed.

"Harry! Harry!"

Harry looked up in surprise, his eyes fading once more into deep moss green as chakra drained away from his eyes, a feeling that soon changed to a weary annoyance as he saw who was coming_. Oh,_ s_o __now__ he gets here?_

There was Dumbledore, clothes rumpled and looked as if he had just run a marathon from the other side of England, gasping for breath. His eyes moved from the crumpled body of Quirrell that looked as if it was about to dissolve into ashes, to Harry, who was still on his knees, pale, dirty and oh-so-slightly miffed.

"What took you…_Kocho-san_?"

Dumbledore looked about ready to deflate with relief. "Harry! I'm glad to see you're all right. But I believe that you need to see Madam Pomfrey. No one can defeat a possessed man without having sustained some sort of injury!"

_And, if I wasn't seeing things, gained a lot more,_ Harry thought, brushing the side of his eyes, still in shock that the one thing that Harry had always said he would become ninja without, what Sasuke always said he was too lazy to try for. What Fugaku had always pushed Harry to gain, but believed he would never attain, had awakened.

"I'm fine, Dumbledore-_sensei_," Harry looked up at him with a faint smile. He pushed himself to his feet, staggering as a wave of weakness suddenly washed over him. Perhaps…not quite so 'fine'.

_I think I used too much chakra…_he thought blearily as he pitched forwards, feeling Dumbledore hurry forwards in time to catch him as the world spiralled into darkness.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry opened his eyes slowly, first taking in the golden orange light that danced across the ceiling of wherever he was. He blinked slowly, wondering where he was. The last think he remembered was being down in the chamber with the broken mirror, discovering he had awakened the Sharingan (his heart almost leapt out of his chest at that) and passing out. He was lying in a comfortable bed with a pounding headache if he moved his head suddenly, the sheets drawn up to his chest with his arms lying over the covers. His body ached slightly, his chakra pathways itching, plainly telling him he had overexerted himself. A sterilised smell wafted over to his nose, a smell Harry easily recognised and he groaned, putting a hand over his eyes.

"_I __hate__ hospitals!" _

There was a faint chuckle to one side and Harry turned his head to the sound. There was Dumbledore, sitting on a small stool beside Harry's bedside. Harry's eyes landed on what looked like half a sweet shop and had the occasional get-well-soon card and bunch of flowers sticking out of the mountain of candy. Not that he knew what the flowers were, although he was sure that the Yamanaka's would. His hitae-ate was folded neatly on the bedside, almost buried under the stash. Seeing where Harry's gaze had landed, Dumbledore chuckled once more.

"Token's from your friends and admirers," Dumbledore said, beaming at him. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a lavatory seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic and confiscated it."

Harry blinked, then chuckled at the thought of the twins doing such a thing. They had told him that they were thinking of sending one home to their younger sister and have him sign it. However, something pulled at his mind and he suddenly wondered in horror how long he had passed out from chakra exhaustion for that the whole school had time to learn about it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better …How long have I been out?"

"Only about a day. However, your friends will be extremely relieved to hear that you have come around."

Harry gave Dumbledore an incredulous look. "How the hell did that get out so fast?"

Dumbledore hummed. "Ah, that is one of those mysterious things that life holds, isn't it?"

Harry snorted, looking back at the ceiling again. _"And that's why you wizards'll never make decent shinobi."_ He said in Japanese, eyes closed. "_That must have at least been S-class stuff, what happened down there."_

"_Yet, you must remember you are a wizard yourself,"_ Dumbledore replied in kind, amused.

Harry paused, then sniffed. "_Yeah well, I'm still a Konoha-nin first."_

Dumbledore chuckled. "_Indeed, I suppose that you are. Sarutobi-kun has been told of what had occurred in the dungeons,"_ Dumbledore continued, suddenly looking solemn. Harry, surprised, looked back at the headmaster.

"_Sandaime_?"

"_As this was recorded as a 'mission', so you would not become what you called a 'missing ninja', I had to keep in contact with Sarutobi-kun. Indeed, he told me that, due to the circumstances, this has been changed from a being recorded as a C-classed mission into an A, or even S-classed one. I believe he is very proud that a genin could do such a thing."_

"_Che, its not like I had a choice,"_ Harry muttered, blushing slightly, although inside he suddenly felt warm that the Sandaime was proud of him. _"If I didn't, _Voldemort_ would have got that stone…oh, kuso."_ He muttered, suddenly recalling just what he did to the stone. "Oh man," Harry groaned, switching to English. "Your friend Flamel's gonna kill me!"

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" Dumbledore said. Was it just his imagination, or did Dumbledore sound positively delighted? "You did do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat about what happened to the stone and agreed its all for the best."

"Won't it mean they'll die, though?" Harry asked slowly.

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die. But for them, it will be like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"I guess. Never thought about it that way before. You sound like a poet, _Kocho-ojii_," he added with a flash of a smile. He shuffled a little. "Um, so you're not angry at me for smashing your mirror, are you?"

"Men have wasted away in front of it, entranced by the desire they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real, or even possible. So, I am sure that that, too, was for the best." Dumbledore just smiled at Harry in a very Dumbledoreian manner while Harry allowed himself a sigh that he wasn't about to get into big trouble because of it. "Incidentally, I must say it is refreshing to hear someone speak Voldemort's name."

"Do you know how confusing calling that guy 'you-know-who' all the time is?" Harry said flippantly. "Besides, that guy's got no self respect, I mean, what kind of moron goes around calling himself something that rhymes with mouldy-wart?"

"Ah! Well, I suppose you would have to ask him yourself. Though I suggest that wouldn't be wise," said Dumbledore. His expression was serious, but his eyes were glittering madly with hilarity.

Harry pushed himself up in bed, ignoring the twinge of pain in his head and picked up his hitae-ate, looking down at the reflective mental for a moment, before tying it around his head once more. "So, old man, mind telling me a few things. I know you know about them – I bet you've even got your own Kage-globe round this place."

Dumbledore nodded. "Of course, although forgive me if I do not answer some of them, if I have a very good reason not to. I will not, of course, lie."

"Understood," Harry said with a nod. After all, wasn't Kyuubi a prime example of something that most people couldn't be told, for Naruto's sake?

"What would you like to know?"

"What's the deal with Snape?"

"Professor Snape, Harry."

"Whatever. Hermione-_san_ said that she saw Snape-_sensei_ casting a curse that time my broom was bucking. But I got a feeling that it was Quirrell who tried to kill me, even if Snape-_sensei_ hates my guts. So why?"

"Ah, yes. I believe it might be due to your father."

Harry blinked. "_Tou-san_?"

"Mm. As I recall, your Father and Professor Snape rather detested each other. And then your father did something Snape could never forgive."

"What?" Harry said, leaning forwards, curious beyond belief.

"He saved his life."

"…_Eeeeeeh_?"

"Yes, funny the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear to be in your father's debt… I do believe he tried so hard to protect you this year because he felt that it would make him and your father quits. Although I think the fact that you threw yourself from the broom during that mach and came out unscathed without his help might have annoyed him somewhat."

_So the guy was trying to help __save__ me? Hermione might be a bit annoyed to find her theory was wrong..._

However, he decided to let the matter drop. He knew that ninja back home had a similar hate for someone they were indebted to. Thinking of his father, though…

"So, who sent the invisibility cloak of '_Tou-san_'s?"

"Ah – your father happened to leave it in my possession and I thought you might like it. Useful things… your father mainly used it for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

Harry laughed. "Sounds like something Naruto would do!"

Dumbledore smiled and stood up. "Now then, I do believe that your friends would very much like to see you alive and well."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry could hardly believe how fast the last days of term went! Without the Stone to worry about, Harry had plenty of time to recuperate from his battle with Voldemort and had even started to practice re-activating the Sharingan when he was alone before bed via meditation. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working and he was silently cursing that the Uchihas didn't have some sort of scroll to say how one goes about 'turning it back on' back home. Harry was beginning to think it was just another illusion of the Mirror of Erised, until he decided as a last ditch effort before he gave it up as the mirror shard's trick by focus a constant amount of chakra steadily through his eyes, as he did when Tree-Climbing. To his surprise and joy, his eyes turned into blood red tomoe-marked irises once more.

_"Yatta!"_ he cried, almost scaring the pants off of Neville who had just entered the dormitories.

He couldn't wait to tell Sasuke and Naruto!

In fact, in all the excitement over his newly awakened Kekkei Genkai, he had completely forgotten they were due to have their exam results back until the papers with his marks were almost thrown at his face. Hermione was in a mood with him. Ron was staring at his marks, then at Hermione's and Harry's and was spluttering. The Weasley twins exclaimed in horror that their prank-buddy was at least half a Percy, or a Bill. In fact, the entire Gryffindor tower looked like they were about to have a stroke when they found out that Harry had rivalled Hermione in all of his marks. They couldn't understand how Harry, who had to be the laziest person in the Gryffindor tower had managed to beat Hermione in their exams-results!

To which Harry had just given them all a cheeky grin and proclaimed in a sing-songy voice: "That's for me to know and for you to go boo-hooing every night because you'll never find out!"

Not that the others had done badly: Ron had got good marks, as had the Weasley twins and Jordan in their third-year exams. Even Neville, to his relief, made up for his terrible Potions grade in Herbology, which he excelled at. Ron was a bit pouty that Goyle, the more dim-witted of the Malfoy-lackeys, had managed to scrape through his exams as well, much to the redhead's disappointment.

"Thinking of Malfoy, where is that prat anyway?" Ron asked suddenly. He looked around at the Slytherin table. Said Slytherins were looking a little sullen with the hall decorated in Gryffindor colours. And they had had it rubbed in even more that they had lost the house cup only the day before when Dumbledore added the extra points from the trio's trip to the third floor – making them even more so. However, as Ron said, the 'dying Yamanaka' was nowhere to be seen. "I really wanted to see the look on his face that we kicked Slytherins' asses to the house cup."

Harry blinked at the redhead, before he stuck up a finger to the side of his face, his eyes sliding away. "Ano…"

…**Elsewhere…**

_Somewhere in a clearing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Draco Malfoy, hanging upside-down from a tree, bound in ropes from head to foot and gagged, sneezed._

…**Back at Hogwarts…**

"I'm sure he'll turn up at some point before tomorrow," Harry replied lazily with a spreading grin. "Anyway, why are you so bothered?" He gave the redhead a penetrating look. "Unless of course you like him…"

"EW! HARRY, DON'T BE DISGUSTING!" Ron hollered as Harry rolled on the floor laughing his head off – the rest of the hall were crossed between shooting them odd looks, laughing, or rolling their eyes and going back to finishing their meal. "IT'S NOT FUNNY, HARRY! I'M GOING TO BE HAVING NIGHTMARES FROM THE MENTAL IMAGES FOR WEEKS!" which, of course, only served to make Harry laugh even more.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

After a long journey filled with Ron, while trying not to laugh, informing them that Malfoy had been found by the teachers hanging by his ankles at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. ("Why didn't we think of that?" - Fred/George. "I heard they don't know who did it, cause there weren't any clues, and Malfoy didn't see who did it!" – Jordan. "Well, whoever it was, I think I found my idol!" – Ron. "…" – Harry, looking away innocently.) Stuffing their faces with sweets, and playing several games of exploding snap with Jordan, the Twins, a reluctant Hermione and a tentative Neville – Harry being the only one to get through the miniature explosions with his eyebrows un-singed, the Hogwarts express finally arrived at Platform 9 ¾.

"You must come and stay this summer," Ron said as they clambered off the train into the crowds of the station, "both of you- I'll send you an owl."

"I'd like that," Harry said, however, he shook his head. "But I can't. I've got stuff to do back home that'll take me all summer, most likely," _like getting put on a genin team, if its possible, meeting whoever my Jonin sensei is and doing missions_, "and I've got to look after my brothers as well. No offence or anything, but apart from Christmas, I only get to see them a couple of months, but I'll have months with you guys, so I'd like to spend as much time as I can with them. Besides," he added with a grimace, "I need to make sure my apartment is still in one piece!" he shuddered slightly at the thought of what his apartment would look like when he got home.

"I understand. I think. Sort of." Ron said, while behind him, Hermione looked like she was trying not to laugh at the confused look on the redhead's face.

As he, Hermione, Neville, Jordan and the Weasley's managed to finally push themselves through the crowds and out through the barrier, they were greeted by two more redheads that Harry had never seen before – and immediately pinned them as Ron and the twins' mother and little sister. As soon as they laid eyes on him, however-

"There he is, Mum, there he is, look!" Ginny squealed as she pointed at Harry. "Harry Potter! Look, Mum! I can see–"

"Be quiet, Ginny, it's rude to point," Mrs. Weasley interrupted, to which Harry was thankful. He had almost bolted on instinct at the almost fan-girlish actions. Mrs Weasley looked at Harry with a smile. "Busy year?"

Harry smiled sheepishly. "A little bit. Oh, and thank you for the jumper and fudge, Weasley-_san_."

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

"_Aniki_!"

"_NIISAN! NIISAN_! OVER HERE!"

"Damn it, Naruto, do you have to be so loud?"

"You were yelling too, _teme_!"

"Not that loud, I wasn't!"

"Come on, Naruto, Sasuke, stop arguing."

"But Iruka-_senseeeeei_…"

Harry looked over the crowds to where the argument was breaking out and grinned. Sasuke and Naruto were both whining at Iruka, who had his head palmed in his hand and looked as though he wanted nothing more than to go hit his head on something very hard.

Repeatedly.

"Iruka-_sensei_! Naruto! Sasuke!"

Seeing Harry, Iruka almost looked as though he had been handed a lifeline and literally dragged the two boys through the crowds towards him.

"Do these belong to you?" Iruka asked, pointing to the two boys, his mouth trying not to quirk upwards.

"Hey!"

Harry looked at them slyly, grinning. "Most of the time."

"_ANIKI_/_NIISAN_!" both boys yelled at him.

Harry laughed and hugged them both. "Man, I missed you guys!"

"Oh, you must be Harry's family!" Mrs Weasley said, seeing them.

"These two are," Harry said, ruffling up both nine-year-olds' hair and laughing as they swatted his arms away and attempted to rearrange their locks once more. "This is our friend and escort, Iruka."

"Speaking of escort, we really should be going, otherwise the Portkey'll go without us!" Iruka said after brief pleasantries. He leaned down to Harry and whispered in Japanese. _"And whats this I've been hearing from Sandaime-sama about S-class missions – are you __insane__?"_

"Er… yeah… about that – oh, would you look at the time, we really got to be going! _Ja_! See you guys next year!" Harry called to his friends, speedily waving and patting their shoulders, before grabbing his brothers and bolting down the platform, Iruka running after him yelling, "_get back here, Harry and explain_!" leaving his friends staring in surprise, shock and laughing in amusement (the twins) behind them.

"_Not until you calm down, Iruka-sensei_!"

"_Uchihaaaaa!"_

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

-San – Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms etc

-Kun - used amongst male students. Indicates familiarity (or superior to inferior, like teacher to student)

-Sama – used for someone of a higher authority and standing than oneself (i.e. a Chunin to the Hokage)

Boshi-san – literally, Mr Hat – Harry is referring to the Sorting Hat

Kakuremino no Jutsu – cloak of invisibility – an optical illusion using cloaks and stuff to look like and blend in with the surroundings – think Naruto escaping the Chunin in episode one, or the… not so good attempts by Konohamaru.

Sensei – teacher, master

Bunshin – clone

Kuso – a swear word

Kocho – Headmaster

Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu – Fire release: Phoenix Immortal Flame Jutsu

Chikusho – damn, dammit

Nawanuke no Jutsu – Rope Escape jutsu

Kawarimi no Jutsu – Replacement Jutsu

Ojii – gramps, grandpa

Tousan – dad

Yatta – Yay, or something similar

Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit

Aniki – Big brother

Niisan – Older brother

Teme – a rude form of 'you', usually translated as Bastard

Ja/ Ja ne – Bye

**Chosha's notes**

Okay, I'll admit, I had no idea how to finish the chapter off. The only thing I could think of was that Iruka does is a very mother-y character, especially when he thinks about his charges and their missions. I mean, he went ballistic with Kakashi about the whole chunin exams and with Naruto when he was trying to do something at a higher level than a D-class mission. To discover Harry, a genin (who should be doing D or maybe C class missions) did what was classed as an A/S mission, then obviously he's gonna go ballistic again. Still… (CK looks at last bit again) …it kinda sucked. (sweat-drops)

But it don't matter what I think, what did you guys make of the chapter? Please review and tell me what you think. Next time we find out what will happen about Harry and a genin team. I have had many suggestions for both, but now I've got all confused, because they all have great possibilities of what will happen in the rest of the story. So now here's another vote for you guys! Give who it is you want and your reasons behind it – good arguments in favour of someone (or disfavour) may sway me better than just giving me a name. So, the competitors for Harry's sensei are as follows:

**Anko**

**Yamato**

**Genma**

**Some other cannon Jonin (minus Kakashi – I have other plans for him to turn up)**

**An OC Jonin**

Second part to it is if Harry should actually go on a team, or if he should be 'apprenticed to someone (if you've read Uzumaki Harry, you'll see what I mean – I suggest reading it, its funny!) So:

**Team?**

**Apprenticed?**

Anyway, I'll give **a max of three days before voting is cancelled** as I do need to actually write the next chapter. For OCs, I do have a few ideas of people I could team him with, but if you have any better ideas, then I'll go for it.

With that all said, there's one last thing to do!

**Preview of the next Uchiha Potter!**

**Harry:** Woah, its great to be back in Konoha! Do you know how much I missed Ramen? Not to mention Dango! Hokage-ojii says that I'm finally going to start real missions! Hang on, wait, so that's gonna be my Jonin sensei? Next episode: Meet Your Sensei – Trial of a Genin's Fate! Look forward to it!

But until then, minna! Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	10. Chapter 9: Meet Your Sensei

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

**Beta'd by Paradox Of Life**

**Chosha's Notes**

Um (rubs back of head) Hey there everyone. I'm sorry for the longer than usual wait, but I had a few kinks to get out of this chapter and also had a few essays to give in as well as a holiday in which I had no access to a computer at all. I did bits when I could though, which was odd since I did the start, the end, the middle and then all the fiddly bits in between. Ugh!

But fear not, the second part of Uchiha Potter series is here! Thank you to everyone who reviewed last time. I did have someone mention that the last chapter did sort of follow canon too much. If anyone else thought that, I just thought I would tell you that I needed the first year to be the foundations for the rest of the story. From now on, things will only be loosely tied to the original HP story line. After all, Uchiha Harry is not your average Harry Potter, ne?

Oh yeah, and to everyone who took part in the vote thing, thank you very much. If anyone wants to know the reasoning behind my choice of sensei etc, just read my note at the end. But I do suggest reading the chapter first, as it might ruin the surprise!

Now we're back in the ninja world, any Italics in the speech will mean that someone is speaking in another language or saying a word from another tongue - Just a reminder. However, that's not what you're here for, so lets cut to the chase and get on with it!

**Disclaimer**: Naruto is not mine. Nor is Harry Potter. Got it? Good.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter: **Harry had his first show down with Voldemort, during which he manages to awaken the Sharingan! Now Harry has returned to Konohagakure one more…

**Chapter Nine:**

**Meet your Sensei – Trial of a Genin's Fate**

"Sometimes, Iruka-sensei, I really, really hate you."

Iruka gave Harry a rather apologetic look as they sat at the bar of Ichiraku, rubbing his scarred nose in embarrassment. Close by, Naruto was grinning like a loon, while Sasuke was covering his mouth with a hand to stop himself from bursting into a rather unseemly gauff at the expression on his older brother's face. Indeed, Harry looked as though he had been almost run into the ground, through a couple of bushes - all of which backwards - and was now slumped over on the bar of the ramen stand glaring pitifully up at the chunin-sensei from where his chin was resting on the wood.

"I said I was sorry, Harry-kun, but if you must make me worry. I mean an S-class mission? What were you thinking? You're just a genin," Iruka told the Uchiha in his best teacher's voice, although the slightly embarrassed blush on his face didn't do much for the image. Harry just glared. It was just his luck that he would be landed with an ex-teacher-slash-escort that would worry about him so much that he almost killed the poor shinobi-slash-wizard.

"So that means you had to chase me, not just all over the train-station, but all around Konoha seven times as well!" Harry snarled from his position at the bar. Naruto was fighting back the odd giggle, his fox-grin almost too big for his face, while Sasuke had to resort to stuffing a fist in his mouth to prevent them bubbling from his own mouth. Harry resolutely ignored his younger brothers as he jabbed a finger at the chunin. "You know, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have had to use on of those escape patterns and land myself in a room full of Oinin, who thought it was funny to use me for target practice!" Harry cried. He rubbed his poor backside. "And then you jump me and I got a senbon in my arse! A Senbon! I'm not going to feel my butt for weeks!"

By this point, it looked like Sasuke had lost all presence of dignity (or perhaps because he almost choked himself from ramming his fist so far into his mouth) as he broke down into a fit of uncontrolled laughter right along side Naruto.

"It's not funny!" wailed Harry.

Of course, this only made them laugh even harder until Sasuke had tears streaming from his eyes from alternating between laughing and choking because he was trying to regain his usual calm, dignified persona. Naruto had fallen off his seat, not caring for dignity in the slightest (not that he had much to begin with – at least in Uchiha standards) and was howling, kicking his legs around as he held onto his stomach. Harry pouted, but rolled his eyes instead.

Turning back to the teacher, he mock glared and said, "You're picking up the tab, you know."

Iruka grimaced, knowing full well that the three of them (mostly Naruto though) would make a hole in his wallet faster than you could say 'Henge'.

It wasn't long before Ayame set the ramen bowls in front of them ("My goodness, Harry-kun! I didn't think you would be coming back! Where were you?") and everyone had managed to control themselves enough to eat - although there was the occasional snicker here and there. Harry ate a little bit, but seeing Iruka's worried eyes on him, Harry sighed and twirled his chopsticks in his hands idly. "Look, Iruka-sensei, its not like I had a choice – it just happened," Harry explained with a shrug. "I couldn't just stand there and let the guy who tried to kill me once – even if I was only a baby at the time – get the power to attempt to have me offed again. Anyway, I'm still alive and I wasn't hurt much – don't even start!" Harry interrupted when Iruka frowned and eyed him sharply at the word 'much'. "I'm still in one piece, aren't I? Not that that will last long if you go and kill me with your worrying again. I don't think even the Hokage could win your 'Worry Attack'."

Iruka looked crossed between laughing, blushing, and scolding Harry. In the end, he just sighed. "And to think I survived you this long, Harry-kun. Oh yes, thinking of Sandaime-sama, the Hokage asked me to tell you to go speak with him once you got back to Konoha."

Harry looked up at Iruka, eyebrows disappearing under his hitae-ate. "Ara? The Hokage? What's Ojiisan want?"

Iruka frowned at the disrespectful referral to the greatest shinobi in Konoha, but obviously decided not to comment – Harry guessed he had already given it up as a bad job. Besides, Harry wasn't his student any more, even if Iruka did still worry about him as if he was. "I suspect he wants to hear what you have to say about the mission – it was written up as one, after all."

"Oh – guess that makes sense," Harry replied, nodding, then shot Iruka a grin. "But you still owe me at least five sticks of dango and another bowl of ramen, you know!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, quite used to his Aniki's actions, while Naruto began to laugh again.

"You think I like Ramen, you wait till you see Niisan and Dango!" Naruto gauffed.

Iruka just groaned - Loudly.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, Hokage-ojii, I'm back!"

Sarutobi looked up from his pile of paperwork to see Uchiha Harry standing in front of his desk, beaming and he sighed in relief that he finally had a reason to have a break from the writing. The boy looked well, Sarutobi thought, given that he had just had a showdown with the wizarding world's most dangerous S-class villain only a week or so before.

"Welcome back, Harry-kun," the Hokage smiled warmly at the young genin. "How was school?"

"Fine, fine," he said lazily, before rising his eyebrow at Sandaime and snorting when the Hokage simply waited for Harry to say more, his hands in his pockets. "As if you don't know, old man – Dumbledore-sensei told me that he'd been keeping in touch with you." He shot the old Hokage a scathing look. "And why'd you tell Iruka-sensei anyway? Do you know how long it took to calm him down enough to explain what happened?"

"He was just concerned about you," Sarutobi said placidly.

"He chased me all over the train station, seven times round Konoha and into a room of Oinin with way too much time on their hands!" Harry growled. "Just cause your still sore over my finding out about Kyu-ball and rearranging your stuff-"

The Hokage choked. "Kyu-ball?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

Sarutobi shook his head. Only Uchiha Harry would have the nerve to come up with such a nickname for the most powerful of the nine Biyu, even if it was sealed into his blonde younger brother.

"Anyway, so what did you want me to see you about?" Harry said curiously. "After Iruka calmed down long enough to stand still and not try to kill me with worry, he told me you wanted to see me."

"Well, as this was marked as your first mission, I need you to make a report as if it were like one," Sarutobi said seriously.

Seeing Iruka's guess was on the mark, Harry snapped to attention. "Hai!" Sarutobi had to admit the boy was adaptable, even if he did have a mischievous sparkle glinting in his eyes. Quickly, Harry explained the major points of what occurred, finishing with the final showdown in the mirror's chamber.

"So, you managed to destroy the stone, so that the dark lord wouldn't be able to create a body of his own, correct?"

Harry nodded and a slight blush darkened his pale cheeks. He coughed, embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. I thought I might get in trouble about that – I mean, it was a precious artifact and all – but Dumbledore-sensei said that all things considering, it was for the best."

Sarutobi nodded. Having such a powerful thing around had its advantages, but when dealing with someone like Voldemort, as he remembered from the war, it was better destroyed. However, before Sarutobi could ask him anything else, Harry suddenly beamed, leaning over the desk and practically bouncing. "But that's not the best bit, Hokage-ojii, I got something really important to tell you! I did it! I finally did it!"

"Did what?" Sarutobi asked, raising an eyebrow and wondering if he wasn't a little young to be doing 'that'.

Harry blinked at that expression the Sandaime was shooting him, then realisation dawned on his face and frowned, his eyebrow twitching, as he swatted the cone hat off the Hokage's head. "Not 'that' you big pervert! I mean that the thing that Fugaku-ojisama said I'd never get even if I tried really-really hard! I activated it! I activated the Sharingan!"

Sarutobi, still chuckling at Harry's reaction to what he thought he was meaning, who was at just that moment taking a sip of his coffee, suddenly spat it out, almost soaking his paperwork and the boy in front of him in the process. Coughing loudly, Sarutobi stared at Harry, who was now beaming even wider than the Hokage had ever seen him, as if he had grown an extra head.

"You what?" he choked out.

"I activated the Sharingan!" Harry said happily, almost bouncing with pride. "It happened in the fight against Voldemort. Everything went really slow and I felt like I could see even the tiniest of movements and then wham! Quirrell was the one being bounced all over the place like a ball! Now I know why Fugaku-ojisama was always so pent up about it all the time! It took me a while afterwards to work out how to turn it back on again, though – I mean if the Uchiha's had scrolls on it, it might have helped, but noooo, we have to be complicated. But I worked it out and now I can activate it anytime!"

"Show me your Sharingan, Harry-kun," Sarutobi requested.

Harry beamed and made a simple ram seal for focus and closed his eyes. "**Sharingan!**" Harry's eyes snapped open, revealing not emerald, but crimson red irises, two tomoe in one eye and a single tomoe in the other. He studied Sarutobi's face for a moment – the Hokage looked as though he was about to keel over - and cocked his head curiously. "Ne, are you alright, Ojii? You look like your gonna have a heart-attack or something."

"No, no, I'm fine, Harry-kun," the Hokage wheezed, rubbing his chest. Inside though, Sarutobi could barely believe what the young Uchiha had just revealed. Harry had done what his father had never managed, what Fugaku had finally given up on trying to cultivate in his nephew – he had activated the Uchiha bloodline limit. _James-kun, I think you'd be very proud of your son right now._ "Congratulations, Harry-kun." Sarutobi said with a warm smile. Harry grinned back and deactivated the bloodline, his eyes fading back to green once more. "Now you should train your eyes so that you can activate them with no seals."

"Sure. I know some of the others used to be able to do it," Harry added, thoughtfully.

"I would also suggest using it with caution, Harry-kun," Sarutobi continued seriously. "The Sharingan is a powerful tool, but it would attract a lot of attention to say the least. I would advise using it only when you must."

Harry waved a hand flippantly, but his green eyes were, surprisingly, serious. "I know that. Besides, it everyone knew about it, they'd expect all sort of stuff from me. Call me lazy – I know very well I am - but I really can't be bothered with that."

Sarutobi chuckled, smiling in a grandfatherly manner at the young genin. "Still the same as ever, I see. Now, other than that, have you been studying the scrolls I gave to you?"

Harry gave him a smirk as if to say 'Pa-lease' and jumped, back flipping, immediately sticking to the wall by the balls of his feet. "Sure I have. I'd show you the water walking thing, but I doubt you want your office turning into a lake or something." He jumped back down, landing with the grace of a cat.

"And how about your magic skills?"

Harry frowned. "I thought Dumbledore-sensei told you about that."

"He only told me out what happened when it came to the incident with defending the school from a troll and defeating Voldemort, of all people, again. And there is nothing like a practical demonstration."

Harry pulled out his wand from his back pouch and looked at if for a moment, before a grin suddenly spread across his face and he shot the Hokage a calculating look. Sarutobi immediately regretted his last sentence, recognising that look in the Uchiha's eyes.

"On second thoughts, don't you even think about it, Uchiha."

"About what?" Harry asked innocently.

"You know what."

Harry pouted, putting the wand away again. "You really are a spoil sport, you know that Hokage-ojii."

Inwardly, Sarutobi let out a sigh of a breath. Yes, telling someone like Harry to show off his magic was a bad idea. Especially when he remembered the pranking reputation he had here and - if the report from Dumbledore was right - at Hogwarts as well. He coughed and said, "Well, now that you're back in Konoha, Harry-kun, now we can work around your shinobi career. As you know, you were supposed to be assigned to a genin team to study under a jounin, but since that wasn't possible I'm making some special arrangements for you so that you can still continue down the shinobi path, so to speak."

Harry blinked slightly at the sphinxish-ness of that statement, then frowned, eyeing Sarutobi with suspicion. "'Special arrangements'? What do you mean, 'special arrangements'?"

The Hokage steepled his fingers and looked at Harry with a slight smile. "It would have been difficult to place you on a genin team, considering that you will only be spending a few months each year in Konoha until you have completed your training at Hogwarts. If you were placed on a team, that team would be at a disadvantage for the better part of the year because it would be missing a member while you were back on the Outside."

Harry blushed, realising that it had been something of a stupid question. "Uh…so what's going to be happening with me then?"

"I was thinking of assigning you to a tutor – an apprenticeship, if you will – to complete your Shinobi training and so you will also be able to complete missions – we wouldn't want to label you a missing nin after all this," Sarutobi chuckled. The genin just grimaced; knowing fully well what kind of panic that may set off in Konoha. The village had been devastated when the clan had been wiped out – who knew what they would be like if Harry or Sasuke also abandoned the village. However, he was broken out of his thoughts as the Hokage began speaking again. "I still have to get a few things finalised however, but that shouldn't take too long. If you stop by tomorrow morning, I should have everything ready, but for now, its starting to get late, so go home and rest and report to me tomorrow – you have a lot of missions to catch up on."

Harry grimaced slightly at the thought of all the missions he would need to catch up on to reach the levels of those he had graduated with. However, he was a little tired from travelling so far by train, being chased all over the place and escaping mischievous Oinin, so he decided it would be best not to argue and bid the old man good day as he headed back to the Uchiha complex and hopefully get to spend some time with his small family.

"So, is that the brat you were telling me about, Hokage-sama? The one you wanted to assign me to become a sensei for?"

The Hokage closed his eyes and sighed, looking up from where he had been watching the older Uchiha leave to the person standing with their arms crossed now in the corner of the room. A window was open, signifying having just slipped in through it, brown eyes frowning in the direction that Harry had taken. The Hokage nodded to the figure.

"Yes. Uchiha Harry. What do you make of him?" He chuckled slightly. "He reminds me a lot of you when you were younger."

"You think so?" the figure asked. Even in the shadows, you could tell the person's eyebrows were raised. There was a loud disbelieving snort. "Yeah right Hokage-sama. Anyway, why did you pick me? I ain't got time for some little brat genin you know – I got other more important things to do."

Sarutobi sighed, knowing he'd have to argue with the Jonin again. "Harry-kun is special. The fact that he's a ninja that can use magic is a miracle in and of itself, which already makes his techniques Hijutsu and him at least an A, if not S-classed village secret. And that's not even mentioning the fact that he managed to defeat the man whom killed his parents again, even if 'Voldemort' was in a weakened state at the time. We can only suspect that he will come after Harry again at some unforeseen point in the future. Apart from the fact that, out of the Jonin, you are one of the stronger ones, you also know how these types of people think. You could help train him to be able to overcome that, not to mention Harry-kun may well become a ninja to rival Kakashi-kun when he is older."

The Jonin heaved a sigh. "Fine, fine have it your way – but only if I get to test him first. If he passes, then I'll teach the brat. But," even in the shadows, the rather sadistic grin that spread over the Jonin's half-shadowed face glinted like a Cheshire cat. "But, if he doesn't past, then I get to throw him right back into the academy. Do we have a deal, Hokage-sama?"

"I understand and accept the condition, Anko-san," Sarutobi nodded grimly, suddenly having the feeling he may have just signed the elder Uchiha's death sentence.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Ah, ohayo, Harry-kun, good to see you're so prompt." The Hokage smiled and waved for Harry to take a seat as he looked up from his work when Harry knocked and entered his office the next day after their conversation, just as asked. The older Uchiha eyed the seats for a moment, judging which one would be the most comfy and threw himself in it, raising a hand in a lazy greeting.

"Yo. So, did you manage to sort out the 'special arrangements' for the Jonin thing?" Harry asked, interested. He had never head of a genin being taken as an apprentice by a Jonin - except maybe for the chunin examination where they needed training. And Fugaku had hired the instructors he had previously, so that wasn't the same thing.

"Indeed I have," Sarutobi nodded, puffing on his pipe. "She should be here soon."

"She…?" Harry blinked, surprised, before almost hitting himself at the stupidity of the question. Kunoichi were just as powerful as Shinobi, so he didn't know why it was such a surprise to find out that his instructor would be female. "So, who is she? And where is this sensei of mine, anyway?"

As if on cue, the shoji slammed open and Harry spun round in his seat to stare at the person who had just stepped through the door.

There in the doorway stood a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties with dark, almost purple hair tied up into a clip of some kind at the back of her head in a practical style for a kunoichi, with her hitae-ate placed on her forehead. She wore ninja sandals like most shinobi in the village and metal guards covered her shins. However, this wasn't why Harry had to stare. The reason was that this kunoichi was showing a sight to the world that most males hadn't seen since they were babies and still breast-feeding. Under a large tanned coat that brushed the backs of her knees she wore nothing more than a fish-netted body suit of some kind that stopped a little under a khaki skirt and left nothing to the imagination. If Harry were anyone other than an Uchiha who was used to stalking fan-girls, he would have been on the floor twitching with a nosebleed right then and there. As it was, Harry blinked, then blinked again, then blinked a third time just to make sure he wasn't seeing things, then raised his eyebrows.

_What…the…heck?_

Spotting Harry, the brown eyes narrowed slightly before she grinned. "Heads up, brat! This is no time to be relaxing. Are you ready for your test to become a real Genin? Good!" She pumped her hand in the air. "Let's go! Follow me!"

Silence. Crickets chirruped.

Harry palmed his face. "It's a Naruto," he muttered under his breath, sweat-dropping. "A Female Naruto…"

Sarutobi sighed. "Anko-san, I haven't finished explaining what is to happen to Harry-kun. Could you just wait for a moment while I finish – unless, of course, you want to tell him?"

The woman, Anko, who looked as though the wind had been blown from her sails, sweat-dropped, a very slight tinge of pink blossoming on her cheeks. "Sorry about that Hokage-sama." She looked over at Harry and eyed him up and down, as if trying to dissect him with her eyes. "Heh, so this is Uchiha Harry. Hokage-sama has told me all about you kid. All right then Uchiha-bozo, listen up. I'm Mitarashi Anko, and I'll be your Jonin sensei – but that's only if you are able to pass my little test."

Harry blinked at that. "Test…what test?"

A rather sadistic smile spread over the Jonin's face that almost made Harry shiver. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you not know? How silly of me. And to think that I almost forgot to tell you that if you don't pass this test, I get to throw your ass right back into the academy."

"WHAAAAAAAT!" Harry yelled, standing up so fast that he knocked the chair backwards. "What the hell do you mean; 'if I don't pass I'll get sent back to the academy'? What were those exams at the academy meant to be for then?"

_A test?_ Harry thought, shocked to the core. He almost hissed under his breath, sending an accusing look towards the old man._ Dammit, Hokage-ojii, you never said anything about a test! But I've already been a genin for a year already - I can't get thrown back into the academy now!_

Taking a deep breath, he managed to calm himself. That wouldn't get him anywhere if he yelled at the woman. "What kind of test is it?"

"A simple survival training test that will involve both of us," Anko explained calmly, although her eyes were glinting. "You see, Bozo, those exams you had before at the academy were to see if you had the ability to become Genin. This test'll see if you're capable, which I doubt."

Harry eyes narrowed at those words. _And what's this chick's problem, anyway? 'See if you're capable, which I doubt' – I'll show you I'm more than capable to be Shinobi!_

"Heh…" Anko smirked, seeing the expression on Harry's face. "This is going to be fun! Well, brat, if you want to stay a genin, then you'd better be at the training grounds by the Cenotaph at dawn tomorrow morning for your test, won't you?" the Jonin chuckled darkly. "Unless you too chicken to handle it…" Harry grit his teeth and held back a snarl at that, his eyes narrowing. Like hell he was going to back down! A wide grin spread over Anko's face at Harry's reaction, the kind that made you think of a demonic she-tiger just before she was about to eat you alive. "Oh yeah, and don't eat breakfast – you'll just puke it up anyway. Dismissed."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Harry-sempai! You're back!"

Harry blinked at the voice and paused on his way back to the Uchiha complex, to see who was calling him. Turning, he saw Tenten running towards him, a smile on her face as she waved, dragged a rather putout Neji behind her. Harry had to bite his lip to prevent himself from bursting out laughing at the horrified expression on the other boy's face. It definitely wasn't the expression you would normally see on any Hyuga's face, never mind Hyuga-genius Neji.

"Neji-kun mentioned that you were on a long-term solo mission, sempai," Tenten said breathlessly as she came to a halt a little in front of him. "Its nice to see you again!"

Harry gave her a small grin. "Nice to be back." He glared daggers at Neji, who was straightening his clothes and shooting the girl a dark look, and crossed his arms with a snort. "You know, I have no privacy anymore – who else did you tell?"

"Just Tenten, Uchiha," Neji said calmly. "If I didn't, she would not have left me alone at all for the whole nine months you were gone."

"Hey!" Tenten pouted, looking rather put out that Neji had blamed it on her. Harry chuckled at the two of them.

Ignoring Tenten's pout completely, Neji fixed his attention on Harry. "So, you've completed that mission – and in one peace. Fate must favour you, unless of course this mission has determined the fate of the place you were assigned to. Is it now ashes?"

Harry rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Oh come on, not that fate crap again. I know you seem to think fate is inevitable, blah-de-blah-de-blah, but I've already told you I don't believe in that stuff. So before we get into that argument yet again, I'll have you know that the place is still standing! What is it with you and thinking I burn down everything? I told you that, while Sasuke-ototo and I may have pyromanic tendencies, I don't randomly burn things down, Blank-eyes!"

Neji raised an eyebrow in a way that did both the Uchiha's best eyebrow raising proud. "So I suppose I imagined when you almost burned down the tool shed during our fight at the academy three years ago?"

Harry sweat dropped at that, suddenly remembering their first disastrous meeting where it had taken Iruka at least ten minutes to stop them from fighting. Trying desperately not to blush, Harry crossed his arms and tossed his head to one side. "That was an accident and I blame you entirely for messing up my chakra system with that Jyuuken of yours."

Neji decided to perfect the art of eye rolling. "Sure it was."

Tenten giggled at the two of them.

Harry sighed dramatically, Pseudo tears running down his face. "Everyone is turning on me…" he moaned, causing Tenten to giggle even more and Neji's lips to quirk at his friend's silly behaviour.

"So, now you're back in Konoha, will they be putting you on a genin team now?" asked Neji finally, once Harry had got over his tears with surprising quickness, as if they were never there at all.

Harry sighed. Now here was what seemed to be the dawn of his problems. "That's the thing. I'll be out of Konoha a lot for the next six years, so any team that I'd be put on would be missing a member for most of the year. The Hokage said he made special arrangements for me to have a tutor."

"Like an apprenticeship?" Tenten asked brightly. "I heard that Yondaime became the apprentice of Jiraiya-sama before he became Hokage. That would be so cool! Whoever it is must be strong! Do you know who you'll be apprenticed to, Harry-sempai?" her eyes shone excitedly. "Oooo, imagine if you were trained by Tsunade-sama! I'd be so jealous!" It had always been Tenten's dream to become a kunoichi to rival the great Slug-Sanin.

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, Tenten, but it's definitely not Tsunade-sama. It was some kunoichi though – what was her name again?" Harry scratched the back of his head. "Some weird Female-Naruto-alike Jonin… Mitarashi someone-or-other… Anko! That's it - Mitarashi Anko! I'm meant to meet her tomorrow for some test or other by the Memorial Stone." Harry's expression darkened and he growled slightly. "Hokage-ojii conveniently left out that if I don't pass this test or something she's gonna give me, then she wont teach me at all – hey, what's wrong with you guys?"

At the kunoichi's name, both of them straightened up in shock, then blanched, shooting each other a look, before looking back at Harry pityingly.

Harry growled again. They knew damned well that he hated pity – even more so when he had no idea just why they were looking at him like that. "Deck being such idiots, she can't be that bad, right? Anyway, I need to get back to the Uchiha complex; otherwise I won't be ready for this test thing of hers. See you guys later."

As Harry leapt off, Tenten and Neji stared after the genin, both of them still pale at the revelation. After hearing rumours about her (Neji especially, since some of the Hyuga that he could actually stand – i.e. other branch house members - had worked with her before and came back scarred for life), they couldn't help but feel dread for their uninformed, newly returned friend.

"He's doomed. Oh poor sempai…" Tenten murmured to herself, shaking her head sorrowfully, already thinking up what speech to give at the genin's funeral. Somehow, even Neji was considering mourning for the unfortunate Uchiha. Such a horrible way to be fated to go…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

When Harry reached the memorial stone the morning of his test with Mitarashi Anko, it was still quite dark outside, the pink of the rising sun barely peeping over the horizon and casting long shadows from the Cenotaph and three stumps standing in line close by. Harry sighed, turning away as he grumped slightly at the ungodly time. It was too early to do that and it was better that he was here on time for his test anyway. For one thing he would be awake and ready for whatever the test would be. For another, he didn't think it was a good idea to test this kunoichi's patience too much, especially at this moment in time. He had the feeling she was slightly unhinged.

"So you finally got here. Good, I was beginning to think you'd chickened out on me."

Harry almost jumped a mile and spun around to see Mitarashi Anko sitting cross-legged on one of the previously unoccupied wooden poles, her lips cocked into a sort of half-smile.

_How the hell did she sneak up on me!_ Harry thought worriedly as he backed away from her slightly. _I didn't even sense her until now! She's definitely a Jonin._

Anko jumped off from her perch and motioned Harry to follow her. "Well, come on, Uchiha-bozo, follow me. I've got a different training location in mind for you."

Harry eyed Anko slightly, wondering what she was up to, but followed her obediently. Despite how out of character other people may have thought this to be for Konoha's Uchiha-prankster, Harry hadn't got a clue what this test of Anko's entailed. This test could mark out Harry's future as a shinobi, so until Harry had passed it, he wasn't about to drop his guard. He was lazy, but he wasn't stupid.

The kunoichi led him towards a large training ground, filled with trees that rivalled the size of some of those buildings he had seen in the brief time he had spent in London, their trunks thicker than any tree he had seen before – even those surrounding Konohagakure. A high, chain link fence surrounded it; the gate before them sealed by a combination of warding _ofuda_, padlocks and chains. A large board hung from the gate, proclaiming 'Keep Out' in large, blood red Kanji and another board hung close by, simply proclaiming 'Gate 17'.

"Whoa…What is this place?" Harry breathed, eyeing it with awe and suspicion. This place was giving him a similar vibe as the Forbidden forest had done back at Hogwarts, but taller.

Anko moved forwards and began opening padlock after padlock, unwinding the chains that fixed the gates together. "This is the location of your test – the 44th battle training zone." She cocked her head towards Harry and her mouth curved into a smirk. "But we call it…the Forest of Death!"

Harry felt a slight shiver go down his spine. He'd heard of the Forest of Death before. The horror stories the chunin in the Uchiha clan had used to tell made the Forbidden forest at Hogwarts seem tame in comparison. Pulling himself together, Harry frowned at Anko. "Isn't this a training field for Chunin?" he asked.

"Yeah? And what's your point, brat?"

Harry sweat-dropped. "Nothing, nothing…whacked-out psycho…" he added, under his breath. However, it seemed that the Jonin heard it anyway.

Anko grinned dangerously at him and pulled out one of her kunai, running it teasingly over his cheek. "That's nothing, whacked-out psycho-sensei to you."

"Heh," Harry, pushed the kunai away and crossed his arms with a bravo he didn't quite feel. "Hey, you were the one who told me that you wouldn't teach me unless I passed this test, so until I pass, I'm not gonna call you sensei."

Anko smirked. "You got guts, I'll give you that, bozo." Harry forced himself not to flinch as she nicked his cheek, a drop of blood oozing from the cut. "Kids like you are quickly killed... hehehe..." She giggled in a seductive, predatory voice. "Spraying that red blood I love everywhere..." She moved her face closer, licking up the line of crimson slowly running down Harry's skin. Harry shivered slightly, staying still as stone to avoid risking an even larger injury to his person, shooting the bloodthirsty woman an unnerved glance.

_Dammit, she really is a Psycho-chick!_

Harry felt a slight trail of sweat run down his forehead as Anko grinned at him once more. She spun the kunai around her finger for a moment, then slipped it back into her pouch. The almost sadistic-slash-playful expression hardened into one of seriousness. "There is a reason that I chose this place to test you, kid," she said finally. "I need to see what you're capable of as a genin – your full capabilities. So, here's what your little test is – survival! You'll enter through here. I'll be entering through one of the other 43 gates. You have two days to find me –"

"Two days?" Harry blurted out, ogling at the kunoichi as if she'd grown an extra head. "Then why on earth did you tell me not to have any breakfast, or pack supplies?" Harry growled, pointing an accusing finger at the woman. "How the hell am I supposed to face off against a damned Jonin when I haven't even eaten?"

"Well, it is a wilderness Survival test, brat, how exactly would it be called a survival test if you had all the stuff you need? If you pass – and that's a big IF – then there will be times that a mission might go on longer than you thought. So you're going to have to learn to hunt, now aren't you?" Anko put her hands on her hips. "Now, as I was saying, if you want to pass this test, bozo, you have to find me by tracking me close to the forest's centre. The second part of your test will show me your combat skills. Within that time limit of two days, you must, not only have found me, but you must land a blow on me – by any means necessary.

"Unlike the chunin exam's second test, you won't have to face other rival ninja – only the animals native to the forest – if you're unlucky, that is. All you have to focus on is finding me and landing a blow." A grin spread across her face again. "Of course, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise you wouldn't land a blow on me in a million years." She slipped her hand into her coat and pulled out a scroll of some kind and flipped it open, dangling it in front of Harry's face. "Here's a map of the layout of the Forest of Death. Memorize it, kid, cause this is the only time your going to see it."

Harry took the map from the woman and eyed it for a moment. It wasn't a particularly complicated map. There were three main parts to the forest; the largest area of forest seemed to be where the gate they stood at was located. A long river flowed from the Northwest and split into three smaller rivers somewhere in the middle of the training ground, quite close to a tower-like structure, a radius of ten kilometres away from each of the 44 entrance gates. A simple map in Harry's opinion, but, as simple as it was, it wouldn't stick in his mind very easily at just a glance, especially when he was stuck in the middle of the forest itself.

Harry frowned for a moment, before inspiration struck and he made sure to lower his gaze slightly so that his eyes were covered by hair and forming a ram seal, masked by his body and the scroll itself, Harry activated his sharingan.

Now, Harry didn't know how much Sarutobi had told the Jonin about him, but he didn't want to go flashing his sharingan off to everyone if he could hide it and use it when people least expected it. The more people knew of it, the more people would expect of him. However, it was the copy aspect of the sharingan that would help him memorise the map. After all, if he could recall it to the last detail, then he could always bring it up in his mind whenever he thought he was lost. Seconds later, Anko snatched the scroll from him, but Harry hid a smirk by glaring at her with emerald-green eyes – the deed was done.

"Aw, I'm sorry, wasn't that long enough? Too bad, brat, but that's all the help I'm going to give you." Anko cocked a grin at Harry. "Oh yes, before I forget-" Anko pulled out something else from her coat. "If you're going to take my little test, then you'll need to sign these forms first."

Harry gave her an incredulous look. "Forms?"

"Well, these forms are just in case you die," Anko said as-matter-of-factly. Harry looked up at her, his jaw hitting the ground before he could control it. He stared at the woman with a look akin to one someone would wear if Snape had come skipping into the room, spouting poetry left and right and hugging people as he gave out sweets in a pink tutu. Quickly, he controlled himself, his jaw clicking back to place almost audibly. Anko continued as if she hadn't spotted it. "Therefore I need your consent; otherwise Hokage-sama will hold me responsible." She finished with as sheepish grin and a chortle that was somehow more frightening than if she had him pinned on the floor with a kunai to his throat.

Swearing softly under his breath in both English and Japanese, Harry read through the sheets. Just as Anko had explained to him, it stated the conditions of the test – a survival-based test involving two days to find and land a hit on Anko by any means necessary, use of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu allowed – blocked attacks not included. It even mentioned that he would have to survive on his own skill for the two days as well. From what he could gather, the gist of the test, therefore, was to put him in a situation a genin may find themselves in during a C or B-classed mission, testing him on his tracking, survival and combat skills. Thankfully for Harry, this test wouldn't be against other rival genin as well out to hurt him like some of the chunin used to tell of their exams, otherwise Harry would have thought it completely insanely hard for a team-less genin.

Not that that mattered, because if he got out of this thing alive, he was seriously going to have words with that closet-pervert old Hokage!

"Of course, you'll also need to know what classes as disqualification," Anko said, leaning against the steel gates so that the metal clinked. Pausing in his grumbling, Harry stilled to listen. Anko raised her hand and held up a finger. "Firstly, if you managed to get yourself killed, either by fighting me, or from some natural disaster." She held up a second. "Secondly, if you do not find me and/or have not land a blow on me by the second day at midnight. Last way is if you give up and drop out of the test altogether. Seeing as you are genin level, you at least get that. If you were entering the chunin exams, you don't get that little option, because in a battle, you cant just say, 'I quit', unless you want to die, of course. That is it for the explanations. I'll give you ten minutes to think it over. After all, if you don't want to risk your life, you'll never get very far as a genin."

Harry's eyebrow twitched. This woman, Jonin-kunoichi or not, had not only insulted his capabilities but also his own courage. Even if he was different from most of his now-deceased clan, he still had his Uchiha-Pride, dammit!

"No need," Harry snapped. "You just want me to give up. I may be lazy, but I'm no quitter. I'll take your test, Anko, and I'll show you my potential. I won't back down – not until I have the strength to protect my brothers and nothing you do or say'll make me chose otherwise!" Harry signed his name with an angry flourish and, glaring into Anko's pupil-less brown eyes slapped the paper into her hands.

"Well, well, it seems we do have a bloodthirsty one this year," Anko chuckled, although there was nothing kind or gentle about it. "You're going to need to be, Bozo. Now, your test will start as soon as I give the signal. One last word of advice, however…don't die." Her expression was deadly serious. "Get ready, brat…" Harry crouched, ready to take off into the forest to at least give himself some sort of advantage over her. "And… Start!"

Harry leaped through the gates faster than the eye could follow.

Anko grinned, rubbing her hands together. "Heh, he's fast. Good. This might be fun after all!"

And with a poof of smoke she was gone.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The forest of death was dark, dingy and had a wild feel about it. Overhead, trees stretched up, clawing at the heavens, the thick leaves blocking off all sunlight, plunging Harry into twilight, his ears almost ringing with the sudden silence that descended upon him, barely even the twittering of birds could be heard. It was rather unnerving to hear nothing but the soft Pat-pat-patter of his footsteps as he half ran, half jumped through the trees into the forest and his own soft, controlled breathing. He wasn't sure how long he had been running northwards for – he could not judge the sun for the time, hidden as it was through the thick canopy. However, it had to have at least been a few hours at most and he must have travelled at least four miles in that time.

_Just how big is this forest anyway?_ Harry thought incredulously, as he landed on the thick branch of a tree, leaning against it as he panted, trying to get his breathing under control, his eyes sweeping the thick trees for any sign of his would-be sensei. _I've only got the rest of today and tomorrow to find that crazy-Anko in this damned forest and land a hit on her. If I'm going to do that, I need to hurry up and find her._

Jumping from his perch on the tree, he landed almost noiselessly on the soft ground. Taking up a kunai from his pouch, Harry crouched, drawing out a crude version of the map he had copied to memory. It was much easier to visualise, however, once it was drawn out and there before his eyes. He studded it for a moment, arms leaning on his thighs as he frowned at the dirt map.

_I started here_, Harry though to himself, pointing to the gate he had entered with kunai point. He glanced down to a rough, slightly wonky scale next to his map, translating map distance to distance in real life_. And continued roughly due north for about three hours. If I worked it out right, I probably covered at least four miles, so I'm just over the halfway point to the tower._

(CK: there are 6 miles to 10km)

He followed the route on his dirt map with his kunai, tapping a part of the forestry with its point. _Anko said to find her in the middle of the forest – most likely she meant near that tower that they use for the chunin exams. The easiest way to get there without getting lost would most likely be by following the river, seeing as it leads to the tower. It would also help to get supplies, like food and water. _Harry sweat-dropped. _Unfortunately, with the way that Psycho-chick was acting, she'd probably expect that and put a load of traps there just to be sadistic. _His stomach grumbled loudly, causing Harry to groan and rub it, slumping slightly_. But I still need to get some sort of supplies. Even I'm not stupid enough to try and take on a Jonin on an empty stomach. It's a bad match up as it is, but I ain't suicidal!_

_I'll have to tread cautiously. Yare, yare…_

Harry sighed and started to dust away his map into nothingness, but froze as a rustling sound came from behind him. At the sound of a growl, Harry's back went ramrod straight, a shiver passing over his spine. Wide-eyed, Harry looked around as the bushes shuddered violently and a tiger emerged, amber eyes fixed on Harry hungrily. What was worse was that it wasn't just any tiger - it was a Fire Country Tiger, a beast that was as large as the trees in it's habitat, that being the Forest of Death, and could rival the size of that Cerberus of Hagrid's – Fluffy - without the extra heads. An animal weighing over 7000lbs, as big as a house and could swallow a ninja in one bite.

Now, if he were a Jonin, this wouldn't have been much of a problem. A high levelled Chunin could probably take it down – if they were fast and lucky. However, Harry was neither. And right now it was looking at Harry as if he was today's main course.

Harry stood up slowly and began to back away, his hands raised submissively. "Eh heh…nice kitty…good kitty…" He almost felt like gulping. "Nice BIG kitty…"

The tiger started to growl and lowered itself into crouching potion, waiting to pounce.

"Oh shi-!" He bolted, the tiger running after him with a roar as Harry scrambled through the bushes in an effort to get away. He jumped up into the trees, hoping that it would be out of the tiger's reach, only to find the tiger jump up the tree behind him. Harry almost fell off through a face-fault. "You have got to be kidding me!" Harry jumped away, soon followed by a very hungry and extremely persistent tiger that seemed to be getting annoyed that it's would-be meal was stubbornly clinging to the idea that he had brother's waiting for him, was too young to die and preferred living, thank you very much.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Harry growled out as he looked over his shoulder yet again to find the tiger still bounding after him. "Okay…you asked for it! **Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu**"

Several fireballs burst from his mouth, shooting at the tiger. It dodged the first two, before Harry jumped, twisting in the air as he shot several more. It moved out of the way of the first one, but jumped headfirst into a second, another joining it seconds later.

Harry paused, looking over at the place where his fireballs had struck, sniffing the air at the smell of burnt fur. "Did I get it…?" he muttered, squinting slightly through the smoke to see if he could see the remains of the creature. However, his eyes widened when the smoke cleared to show one very annoyed tiger, which was looking very much like the fur on it's face had been burnt to black ashes. Harry sweat dropped. "You're…joking…"

The tiger snarled.

With a yelp as it's claws almost ripped into the emblem and, more importantly, his back, as it pounced at the hastily retreating Uchiha, Harry lost his footing and fell from the branch, landing feet first into a bush.

He landed with a hard thud on the floor, trying not to hiss in pain as he rolled into the bushes and crouched there, staring up at the tiger that was standing on the branch he had fallen from through the bushes' thick leaves. The beast was growling hungrily as it's blood-shot golden eyes tried to find him through the leaves with a look on its burned face that, if on a human, would have promised death, torture and castration, and not necessarily in that order. Harry grimaced.

_Dammit, at this rate, that thing's going to find me!_ Harry thought, almost panicked as he attempted to hide his presence from the beast._ What the hell would Naruto and Sasuke think if they heard that? 'I'm sorry to say that your brother was eaten by a tiger during his genin test'. Yes, now that sounded like a good way to go - I think not!_

It sounded ridiculously stupid for an Uchiha, even to his own ears.

All the more reason to avoid that fate, he reasoned as he formed a cross-shaped hand seal.

The bush rustled and Harry emerged and bolted off into the forest once more. Obviously, the creature soon spotted it and one very pissed of Fire Country Tiger jumped high over the bush, clearing it completely as it pursued the now wailing Uchiha through the forest until they had disappeared.

Silence.

A moment later, the bush rustled again and the real Harry, looking very sorry for himself with twigs and leaves sticking out of his hair and dirt covering his clothes, popped up from his hiding place and looked over the place where the tiger and his look-alike had just gone. Seeing they were nowhere in sight, Harry let out a sigh of relief and slid down the tree.

_It fell for it;_ Harry grinned giddily in relief. _I'm so glad that I learned the Kage Bunshin now! If I didn't think it was stupid, I feel really sorry for that clone right now…_ he imagined it running around the forest screaming its head off while pursued by the tiger – if it hadn't eaten it yet.

Now that was a disturbing thought.

_Who's stupid idea was it to send a team-less genin into a training ground that some stupid moron built in a place with something like that trying to eat you! _Harry thought with a growl as he stood up, brushing himself off and looking over his shoulder nervously, as if expecting another Fire Country Tiger to jump him. He sweat dropped at the obvious answer – Mitarashi Anko.

_That…bloody…sadist…_

He decided that it would be beneficial to his health if he started moving. The river seemed like a good place to be just now. At least he'd have a little more warning of a tiger attack next time.

It was another stretch of unknown time later that Harry heard it – the chuckling sound of running water close by. His mouth suddenly felt sandpaper dry at the sound, making him all the more eager to find the river to quench his thrust. Following it with ears strained to hear its direction; Harry leapt from tree to tree, as the forest became less dense. Light began to shine through the trees as they parted, revealing a deep river running over a rocky bank.

Harry dropped from the trees and crept forward, hiding in the brush as he eyed the clearing for any traps Anko might have set up as part of his 'survival test'. However, even when Harry activated his Kekkei Genkai with a seal to focus and made a quick scan with the sharingan to look out for any chakra-activated traps (or hidden bestial animals that wanted to use him as their lunch), he couldn't see anything that marked out the river as an ambush.

He paused for a second longer, then, deciding to listen to his paranoia a little, he moulded some chakra and made a cross seal.

"**Kage Bunshin no jutsu!**"

A shadow clone appeared crouched down next to him in a poof of smoke. It looked at him with deep green eyes, frowned in concentration as Harry nodded out towards the river. Bunshin-Harry nodded back with a grin and V-sign before he stood and walked out into the area, looking around for any signs of danger as he picked his way towards the river. Harry observed for a moment as Bunshin-Harry stood at the water's edge, prodding area with a sandled foot. Obviously finding no traps, the Kage Bunshin turned back to Harry and motioned for him to come out with an 'Okay' sign and a wink. Harry sighed with relief and let the Bunshin vanish.

_Must be because we entered from opposite gates,_ Harry mused as he emerged from the bushes. _She probably didn't even pass this way. After all, its too far south of the tower area for Anko to have come here – unless she just wanted to play Crazy-Psycho, _he added to himself with a grimace, rubbing his still marked cheek from Anko's kunai.

Carefully, Harry knelt at the waters edge, scooping up some of the crystal clear water in his palms and drank deeply, feeling much better for it. Carefully, he scooped up a bit more and rubbed it over his face and neck, cooling his heating body from the run from the tiger. As he rolled his neck carefully to reach more skin with the water, Harry looked up into the sky, screwing up his eyes slightly as the sun shone done at him. He winced as it hit his sensitive eyes and he raised a hand to shield them.

It had to be around eleven in the morning, give or take a few minutes, by Harry's estimation. He guessed that most of the time that had elapsed was during his escape of the tiger and thus finding his way to the river after the detour, otherwise by his memory of the map he would have found this place at least an hour ago. Still, all that running through the forest and the fact that he hadn't eaten since last night made his stomach grumble louder than it had done in a while. Harry blushed, glancing over his shoulder, although in his mind he knew it was silly to be looking out for spectators to his stomach's loud protests.

Turning back, he sat on the pebbled bank, wondering what to do about food. So far in the forest he had spotted bugs, a snake or two as he hopped from the trees and that big tiger, all of which he suspected wouldn't taste all that brilliant, if not dangerous to his health. Particularly that tiger - he wouldn't go anywhere near that thing again, even if you paid him. He opened an eye to spot a silvery fish swimming lazily downstream and the proverbial light bulb turned on. He grinned, eyeing the fish with not-so-nice intent. It looked like fish would be on the menu today.

Now, if only he had a way to catch them…

He fingered his kunai consideringly.

It wasn't long before Harry, armed with long, thin wires tired to several kunai and was crouched quietly over an overhanging rock over a deep part of the river, his eyes scanning the water for any sign of fish to catch. It wasn't long before it happened - a thick, silver fish swam lazily downstream, it's scales glinting in the sunlight. Harry grinned.

Trying not to move too fast and thus scare off his pray, Harry pulled his kunai back and, pausing for a moment as the fish changed direction to swim upriver and threw. The blade shot into the water with a tiny 'splosh', impaling the fish immediately. The fish jerked spasmodically at the impact. However, Harry yanked back on the wire and the kunai was pulled out of the river, yanking up a large fish into the air, dropping it onto the stone sore beside him. If flopped weakly for a moment, then lay still.

Harry grinned at his accomplishment, before tugging the kunai out of the fish. Holding it by its tail, Harry threw it into a roughly made stone circle next to him that he had made as a makeshift bucket, until he could get around to gutting and cooking them. He turned back to the river, wondering for a moment if he should catch more or not. The one he got was quite big as it was and would be enough to feed him. On the flip side, however, there was still another day and a half to go, so he needed supplies. He would rather not have to risk going foraging when it was getting dark, especially where that tiger was concerned. Not to mention as he was travelling through the forest he had seen snakes at a distance that made Hagrid look small.

He shuddered. Yes, definitely catch more. He was sure that dried fish would taste better than he would to one of those wild animals.

Thankfully, it seemed his luck was with him for a change because Harry managed two catch two more decent sized fish that he would be able to ration over the next day or so. Idly he thought it was a shame he didn't have any rice – they would have made excellent sushi.

It didn't take Harry long to find some dry firewood – after all, Fire Country was famous for its warm weather. Even if they got a monsoon the wood would be dry an hour later – and carefully he began to set up a campfire, exactly how they taught them at the academy.

Wiping the sweat from his eyes, Harry looked down at his handiwork before thinking over another problem. Because Anko had not told him enough to prepare for some sort of two-day survival trip, Harry didn't have any tinderbox or matches to start the fire off. Sure he could use a fire jutsu, but if he did that, he would probably incinerate the wood, as well as the ground at least ten foot around it, as well as the fish, which would defeat the entire point of catching them in the first place. They were never designed to do something so fine as to light a stack of wood, after all. Harry sat down, crossing his arms over his chest and glared at the wood, willing it to burn with his eyes as he tried to think of how to get around this little obstacle. Suddenly, his face went slack as he remembered a tiny bit of information and he smacked his forehead with a hand.

_What are you, some kind of idiot for something?_ He growled to himself, not sure whether to laugh his head off or smack his head on something solid for a few minutes. _You just spent almost a year at a magic school and you now forgot that you could easily start a fire with a little magic? I swear its staying around morons like that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle for so long – I must have caught stupid. Harry no Baka._

Pulling out his wand from his thigh pouch, Harry directed it at the firewood with an easy flick of the wrist.

"Incendio!"

Tongues of fire shot from the end of his wand at the wood. It blackened, crackling for a moment, before it caught, the flames slowly licking up as they spread along the stack. Harry looked over his fire for a moment, prodding it with a twig and stroked it to help it grow, before leaning back on his hunches to observe.

It was still a little warm to cook on just yet, at least until it had settled down, so Harry turned his attention to the next part of his cooking chores – preparing the fish.

_Oh, joy, _he thought, sarcastically. Of all the chores in his life, gutting fish had to be one of those that Harry hated. While he was perfectly willing to believe in it being a necessary task to learn how to do correctly, he still found it rather distasteful. After all, even a ninja finds ripping the guts from a dead creature somewhat unpleasant.

_Oh well. At least it should be worth it in the long run_, he reminded himself as he dipped his kunai into the water, washing away the blood and entrails, turning the river water clear pink as it washed the steel clean.

Skewering the fish onto sticks to cook them and propping them up on rocks beside the fire, Harry wrapped his arms around his knees, prodding at the fire and frowning slightly.

_Finding Anko's going to be difficult,_ he thought to himself as he stroked the fire with a stick. _I only have a general idea of where she'll be – at the centre of the forest – but there's still a mile radius that that could cover. And that's not even mentioning how well Anko can cover her tracks, and that definitely it won't be easy to track – she is a Jonin. A wacky one, but still a Jonin. After all, you need to be not only strong, but also subtle to even manage to do some of those high ranking missions like assassination or spying. There's a chance that she might make it a little easier, seeing as I'm only genin level myself and this is just to test my abilities, but I can't just rely that that's what she'll do._ He narrowed his eyes. _I'm going to need a plan of some kind._

Harry checked the fish carefully, turning them slightly to make sure that they were cooking properly with one hand. Quickly, he drew out his map sketch once again with the other, this time using a stone to scratch it onto the surface of a larger rock and leaned back to study his work, frowning slightly. Pulling a fully cooked fish from the flames and blowing on it to cool it slightly, Harry ran a finger over the map, carefully tearing off a little of the fish with his teeth and chewed thoughtfully.

_Okay, so I'm about here. The best hope I have for this is following the river to the tower. I'll also need to look closely for any kind of footprints, breaks in the twigs or any movements from the other animals that might have been scared out of the underbrush. Finding Anko's all well and good, but it's no use if I get too distracted and end up eaten by one of those snakes or tigers or something. And it's a good warning system as well._

"This would be so much easier if I'd been placed on a team," Harry sighed. "What a bother. Baka Hokage-ojii…"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was long past noon by the time Harry had got anywhere with his search for his illusive would-be sensei, the sun already sinking towards the west if what he could gather of the little light sprinkling through the leaves could tell him anything. As he had predicted by following along the riverside, he had come across a few traps the closer he came to the tower (which he managed to avoid, although he did get caught in an extremely well hidden net. He managed to get out of that one by blasting it with a few Reducto curses and a Gokakyu for good measure), but had also caught sight of footprints in the soft ground at the waters edge. After running his fingers along the shape, he easily picked out not the print of an animal, but the outline of a sandal.

It was the first time Harry had come this way; there were no other humans in the area that he was aware of. The only logical explanation Harry could find was that it was from Anko – probably when she left the traps. Scanning the area with his sharingan – which had activated at some point as he stared around (He realised that it may become almost automatic when he was older and decided that he was going to have to be careful to hold it back when it wasn't necessary to have it active, otherwise he'd either be wasting charka, or reveal it to someone accidentally) – Harry easily spotted the tell-tail signs of a person passing through.

With the stealth a cat could have envied, Harry bound through the forest, pausing every now and again to look and find the trail, to see where it's directions had changed before leaping off once more. He kept moving, ducking branches and using his arms to catch them to help propel himself forwards, like a monkey. He forced his breathing to become calm, controlled as red eyes scanned ahead, picking out every slight change, every unnaturally bent branch, or disturbed moss and soil, every trace of human existence, however tiny the signs.

Idly he realised that he must have been getting close to the tower-structure, dead centre of the forest. He could see its red tiles of the roof rising just above the trees ahead and it seemed that the forest's density was lessening a little. The orange of the dying son was already shining through, casting the forest in a deep, almost coppery hue, giving the forest a feel of wild, untamed beauty, not just dark intimidation. Still, Harry pulled his mind back to the here and now and narrowed his eyes as he sprinted forwards, jumping and landing from tree to tree. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he skidded to a halt, leaping backwards and spun so that his pack was pressed against the trunk as he balanced on a high branch with his chakra, his body hidden by leaves as his eyes peered down through the branches at the figure below. A smirk almost formed on his face and his heart was pumping with excitement.

_Found her!_

There she was, obviously waiting for her would-be student to pick up her trail. Almost from the look on her face, Harry grumpily realised that she probably left the tracks on purpose to test his tracking abilities. Well, it was a test, after all. Despite her sadist nature, he was sure that even she remembered that he was only genin.

Still, despite that, she wasn't so easy to spot, despite her doing nothing more than sitting on the top of a thick tree-root, her eyes scanning the area. Although if she was looking for him, or for any warning that some insanely large hungry beast was about to try to eat her for dinner, he didn't know. It was her coat, he realised, that had almost made him miss her altogether. Strangely enough, her tanned coat seemed to make her blend almost into the background of the tree-bark that was not quite so moss infested. In fact, if it weren't for the sharingan, Harry probably wouldn't have seen her at all and would have darted out and accidentally announced his presence.

Carefully controlling his breathing and suppressing his charka as much as he could to avoid detection, Harry looked through the tree branches one more at the jonin, who was now yawning loudly from her perch on the root and slowly slipped a hand down to his kunai holster, hesitating slightly, wondering how exactly he was to go about 'landing a blow' on the woman. He had several choices, but so far he wasn't sure about any of them.

_As far as I can see, I don't have many ways of going about it without loosing my edge. So far, it doesn't look like she knows where I am – I must have stopped myself from entering the clearing in time to keep my position. _Harry thought, eyes fixed on the kunoichi below. His finger traced the opening of the thigh pouch. _My first choice is to throw kunai at her – unfortunately, where I am now, she'd probably see it coming and catch it before it got anywhere near her. If I'm careful, though, I should be able to move so that I'm around the back, but even if I do that, I can't go much closer, otherwise she'll sense me for sure. The downside is that if I go around flinging kunai at her I might end up accidentally putting her out of commission, or, even worse, killing her._

He paused, then sweat-dropped and slumped

Yeah, right, who was he fooling – a genin kill a jonin? Hah, that would be the day. Harry knew he was good for his age, but not that good. Its not like he was a great ninja-prodigy or something like the red-eyed weasel was.

Trying to get back his dignity, Harry continued with his planning. _There's also the choice of using my magic. After all, it's not like you can catch it like you could a kunai. _He fought a sigh. _The only downside is that Sandaime may have already told her all about that. After all, if I pass, she's going to need to know about that. Add to that that I don't have a lot of offensive spells in my arsenal just yet, or at least useful ones. After all, I had to find those ones on my own. As I recall, they are higher levelled spells that what my year was meant to know. There's also the fact that you have to say the name of the spell – not that that's any different from performing a ninjutsu – which could give away my position. Still, if I could just land her with a Body-bind, it will be all over._

A plan began to form in his mind and he felt a smirk settle onto his face. Carefully, he retreated away from his position slightly to keep out of hearing range. If he was going to pull this off, then he mustn't let Anko get any advantage over him by finding out where he was. Retreating to an acceptable distance outside of average hearing range – he prayed she didn't have some sort of Kekkei Genkai that gave her superior hearing or something – Harry formed a hand-seal that he had been using quite often of late. However, he wasn't going to think too much on that if it would help him with his plan.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Harry whispered quietly.

A poof of smoke later and a double stood in front of him, hands formed in the same seal. Already knowing hat Harry had in mind, the Bunshin nodded seriously and began to make his way to form some kind of distraction to get her attention away from the real Harry.

It was quite simple, in Harry's opinion, but that was what made it easier to pull off – less complications. The plan was thus: Bunshin-Harry would circle his way around the clearing at a safe distance and then draw Anko's attention away from him and onto the Bunshin instead, thus making her turn away from the real Harry. The real Harry would then be able to use the body bind. With Anko distracted by the Bunshin, she may not have time to turn around before the spell hit. The full-body bind would prevent her from moving at all, and thus Harry would be able to pin her, strike her, or just simply hold a kunai to her throat. Either way, Harry would win.

Okay, so he had to admit, it wasn't very honourable to strike while someone back is turned. He could only imagine what his Gryffindor friends would think, him acting so, in their words, 'Slytherinish', but hey, he was a shinobi for crying out loud! There was a reason they were called Konoha-ninja and not Konoha-samurai after all.

With that in mind, Harry slipped his hand into his hip pouch and felt his fingers close around polished wood. He drew it out slowly, adjusting his grip on it as he positioned it through the branches, getting ready for the moment when his clone would reach the other side of the clearing and create a distraction. He didn't have long to wait.

There was a slight movement from the bushes and suddenly several kunai shot in Anko's direction. Anko stiffened immediately and turned, dodging two and flipping away in a flurry of tanned coat to avoid the third. She smirked in the direction of the bush that they had immerged from and Bunshin-Harry jumped out, launching several more Kunai at her.

"That won't work, brat," the jonin taunted and dashed in to engage in taijutsu. Bunshin-Harry leapt back, trying to adjust his hold on the kunai – there was no way he would be able to hit her at such a close range and tried to duck out of the way. He avoided her fist – just barely, but didn't manage to see the knee come crashing into his stomach. The Bunshin choked, wide-eyed, before vanishing in a poof of smoke. "Kage Bunshin?" Anko said. She sounded almost impressed.

The real Harry stiffened. Her back was to him – it was now or never.

"Petrificus Totalus!" His hand flicked in a familiar motion. A red beam of light erupted from his wand.

Anko stiffened and spun around to see the red beam coming towards her. She almost seemed to grin at the challenge and leapt away, causing the spell to crash into the floor, sending up a cloud of dust and moss-like grass. At the same time she grinned, sending several kunai in Harry's direction. Trying not to curse, Harry jumped away, the kunai landing with a dull 'thunk' as they hit the branch mere millimetres away from where Harry was just standing.

Harry leaped away from his hiding place as fast as he could. This was bad – if he didn't move fast, she'd find him in no time. However, as he touched down on the next branch, a kunai came flying towards him. Sucking in a breath to avoid crying out in surprise, Harry skidded to a halt and ducked. Something whipped past him, causing his hair to ruffle from its passing. It was close – too close. The kunai must have just grazed him - he could see strands of his hair float down in front of his face. A few centimetres less, and it probably would have been buried in his head!

Almost frozen, Harry turned to look at where the kunai had come from and winced. Anko was facing him, her brown eyes fixed on his own and was grinning as she bounced a kunai in her hand. Harry couldn't help but swear under his breath. His edge that might have helped him finish this test quickly was gone.

"So you were able to track me. I've got to say that's fairly impressive, kid, that you know the Kage Bunshin at your level. You found me faster than I though as well. I was expecting you to take till at least early tomorrow to find me, but I guess I underestimated you a bit, hm?" She turned to look at him fully, the smile dropping off her face. "Test isn't over yet, brat. So far you've passed the first half, so after this, you won't have to track me very far again, now that I know your tracking abilities, even in a place such as this. As much as it would be fun to see how you'd manage, I don't think the Hokage would be pleased with me if one of the last Uchiha-brats got eaten because he was trying to look for me again!"

Harry sweat-dropped as Anko laughed, wondering if she knew just how close he had actually been to that fate. However, Anko continued. "Now, on this part of the test is just a battle to test your skills, as you already know. Too bad your tactics didn't work." She patted her torso with a hand. "Of course, that means you've got to land a hit on me. So, you up for the next part of your test?"

Harry immediately bent his knees, balancing on the balls of his feet to either attack or dodge at a moment's notice. He'd seen how fast she could move when she engaged his clone in taijustu – he couldn't leave anything to chance against this woman, it seemed. "Ready."

Anko gave him a feral grin. _Heh, he really looks ready for it. I think I might like this brat! _"Now that's what I like to hear! And…begin!" And she lurched forwards.

_So fast!_ Harry thought, ducking out of the way of a fist and knee combination that she had used on his clone, flipping away from her as he pulled out a set of kunai and flung them at her. Anko dodged the first two, sending them flying passed her and burying into the floor and brought up her hand, snatching another out of the air as it got close to her face.

"Is this all?" She taunted. "I was expecting more from you, Uchiha."

There was a hissing sound from behind her and one of the kunai, a tag tied securely around the metal hoop, burst into flames. Her eyes widened.

"A Paper Bomb! Che!"

She dodged out of the way as it exploded, scattering debris and catching the tail of her coat, which singed and blackened, a burned smell reaching her nose. She whipped around to face Harry, but by this point, Harry had already formed the seals.

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu**!"

A ball of fire shot towards Anko and everything was blocked from sight as flames almost as big as himself engulfed the area. He quickly tapered off, almost panicking that he may have burned the kunoichi to death or something. However, when the smoke cleared, all he could see was the charred remains – his heart almost stopped – wait, of a log!

Harry's eyes widened and he stumbled back. "Crap! Kawarimi!" His eyes wildly scanned the area. "Where is she?"

"**Sen'eijashu**!"

_What the-?_

Harry spun around, eyes wide at the voice that had come from directly behind him, his eyes widening even father when at least a dozen shadowy things shot towards him out of Anko's sleeves with the speed of bullets. Suddenly, he realised this was no genjutsu, but at least four solid snakes made of pure chakra were aimed right towards him. They were far too close for him to dodge.

_Kuso_!

He brought up his arms, crossing them in front of him to protect his throat from vicious fangs. Snakes struck, some clamping down, restraining him from pulling away, others wrapping around his arm and sank their teeth into the limb. Harry grunted in pain, trying not to cry out as dozens of pairs of fangs bit into soft flesh, tearing his sleeve as they drew blood.

Harry gritted his teeth against a cry threatening to escape from his throat, staggering back from the force of the strike. However, he managed to keep his footing on the branch. Harry choked back a hiss of pain, looking up at Anko, eyes narrowed against the pain as she landed in a crouch on the closest branch, her arms held forwards, the snakes leading back to her sleeves like emerald ropes.

"Clever, kid," Anko said softly. "You managed to stop the snakes from my Sen'eijashu from striking your throat or strangling you to death." Her face twisted into a smile. "I think I'm starting to like you, kid. But what are you going to do now? After all, with my snakes fastened onto you like that, you can't defend yourself from my next attack!"

_She's right! _Harry's eyes widened, half in shock, half in realisation. _This is bad! I may have stopped myself from being strangled to death, but with the snakes clamped onto my arm like this, I only have one hand to defend myself with!_ He gritted his teeth and turned back to look at Anko, trying to pull his other arm away in order to grasp his kunai, but his hand froze when Anko suddenly yanked the arm where the snakes had emerged from back with great strength. He could already see where this was going, but was in no position to be able to stop it.

_Crap!_

The snakes yanked back so hard that they completely pulled Harry off his feet, sending him flying up into the air with a cry as fangs sunk deeper into his arm, gripping him tightly, refusing to let go. Suddenly, the fangs slackened off, tossing him further into the air. Harry tensed, snatching out at one of the branches, channelling charka to his hands in order to stop his grip from slipping and flipped around, pulling himself onto the branch. However, he tensed as something shot up behind him.

Harry spun around, his eyes wide as he saw Anko leaping up towards him with her kunai bared and Harry barely had time to defend before she was upon him, fists, feet, elbows, knees and kunai pummelled towards him and Harry desperately defended, trying to back away from her, yet he couldn't avoid her completely – a fist straight in his stomach bodily lifted him off his feet, knocking the wind out of him. He gasped for breath, barely able to breath and Anko grabbed him in some kind of lock. Vaulting off of the branch, she grabbed Harry and twisted her hold in mid-air, launching him like a rocket towards the ground. Harry gasped in horror and did the only thing he could think of – pulled out some of the wires in his pouch, throwing one into the air that had a shuriken attached. It wound its way around one of the branches and the blades pierced the wood, the wires tightening and burning off the moss as it rubbed, yanking Harry out of his free-fall.

Harry almost bounced, as if he were attached to a bungee and the wires bit into his palms. Hissing in pain, Harry jumped down, landing firmly on his feet, before wavering and falling into a crouch, gripping his abdomen and gasping for air.

However, he once more felt a build-up of charka and turned once more. However, this time he was too late and the snakes crashed into him like tiny fists, slamming him into the ground. Harry cried out in pain as he skidded with the snake's force, his hitae-ate loosened by the impact clinked as if fell to the floor and skidded away.

Harry groaned as the snakes retreated and could do nothing but lie there for a moment, when instinct kicked in again. Arms trembling, he managed to flip himself on his stomach and push himself to his knees, gripping his wounded arm to his aching stomach. His eyes fell onto his fallen hitae-ate, glinting in the dying light and reached out to get it. However, he stilled when another hand reached there first and lifted it up, the navy tails of cloth draping limply over the fingers.

Blinking, Harry looked up to see Anko standing over him, holding the hitae-ate in her hands and looking from it to him and back again. Finally, her brown eyes fixed on Harry, who was now trying to force himself to get up, despite his aching bruises.

Even as she watched, the jonin couldn't help but feel her respect for the kid go up.

_He's the first brat in a long while who could even get this close, and still he's trying to get up and fight? He'll kill himself._

She held up the hitae-ate so that it caused the young genin to pause. "You know, if you can't even hit me, you're not going to keep your title of genin for much longer." She told him. Harry's eyes narrowed and he almost audibly growled. "And here I'd heard that you Uchihas were meant to be genius'. Guess I was wrong."

Yes, she was purposely taunting Harry. It wasn't as though an enemy ninja would not. If Harry overcame it to come back stronger, then she would have to admit that the boy really had potential and she would train him to be a ninja of Konoha. She didn't want to just toss aside any student she took on like a certain bastard of a sensei, but that was just the kind of missions he might get if he joined with her – she had no patience for dumb D-classed missions after all.

She saw the boys head dip down, his face pale and his fingers scrape into the soil, his lips pursed tightly.

_But if he lets it bother him so much that he quit, then I guess he wouldn't make a ninja after all and he definitely would be crushed by being my student._ Anko thought, surveying the boy in front of her. She was sure as hell that the Hokage wouldn't be happy about that.

It was a test, her personal test, to assess his true character.

Perhaps she had been spending too much time around Ibiki…

"That's enough for today," Anko said abruptly in a surprisingly serious voice. Harry hesitated and blinked up at her. "It'll be getting dark soon and I'll be much harder to find shelter then. I suggest you find some place to heal up and rest until tomorrow. After all, if you're going to hit me, then you need all the advantages you can get. Come back here tomorrow - if you pass this test, I'll give you your hitae-ate back and I'll teach you everything I know" She turned away from him, then paused, glancing over her shoulder at Harry's kneeling, panting and blooded form, a smirk forming on her face. "You should consider yourself lucky, brat. In the real world, you wouldn't be given second chances."

And she turned and left, leaving a pale-faced Harry to struggle to his feet, arm held to his chest and his face covered by his bangs, his teeth gritted against a burning of shamed tears which he refused to allow to fall. His fingers clenched around blooded cloth, knuckles slowly turning white.

_And here I'd heard that you Uchihas were meant to be genius'. Guess I was wrong…_

Somewhere above, a low grumble of thunder could be heard. A storm was coming…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The rain came down heavily, even through the thick, leafy canopy. It almost thundered down, soaking everything. The forest itself was plunged into inky blackness as night fell somewhere outside of the wild, twisting trees, nothing could be seen but the vague outlines and shapes of gnarled wildlife. Within the roots of one tree that was raised at an odd angle that created a natural cave of wood, the glimmer of flames could be seen, casting twisted and blurred shadows to the surrounding trees like some sort of demons as flames flickered and the thick rain blurred everything in its path.

Harry stared dejectedly into the flames, the sleeves of his right arm torn and bloody, his other hand covering it tightly to help stop the blood-flow, although it seemed to be doing more to cover his fingers with sticky redness. However, Harry didn't care as he leaned his uncovered forehead against his knee. That parting scene kept replaying over and over in his mind, taunting him with his failure.

…**Flashback…**

_She held up the hitae-ate so that it caused the young genin to pause. "You know, if you can't even hit me, you're not going to keep your title of genin for much longer." She told him. Harry's eyes narrowed and he almost audibly growled. "And here I'd heard that you Uchihas were meant to be genius'. Guess I was wrong."_

…**Present…**

"…Dammit…" Harry whispered, barely audible through the hiss of rain pattering just outside of the makeshift shelter. He shivered a little more; pulling his wounded arm against his body. "…Dammit…"

Harry stared dejectedly into the flames though the space between his arms and knees. He hadn't felt so useless since that day over two years ago. He was no pushover amongst his age group, he knew that, but he had never been in such a fight with a Jonin before. In the face of her strength, he was nothing. And that wasn't a very encouraging thought - especially since if he didn't land a proper hit on her by sunrise, he wouldn't even be classed as a genin any more. He didn't think he could face his brothers if that happened.

Harry tore his eyes away from the flames, shaking of his melancholy as he carefully pulled back his torn sleeve. His sleeve had been torn to sheds and was fairly useless by this point except to catch on everything. Pulling out a kunai, he cut the cloth and carefully used it to wipe the blood away from the wound, looking it over for any dirt that might have rubbed into it from his up and close meeting with the underbrush. It looked like dozens of puncture marks from the serpent's fangs from Anko's attack – Sen'eijashu, he remembered. Apart from the blood that still oozed from it, it didn't look as if it was dirty. He could only hope that the chakra snakes weren't poisonous.

Seeing it was as clean as he was going to get it in this forest, Harry pulled out a roll of bandages from his hip pouch and began to awkwardly bandage his arm with his left hand and teeth. It took a while, but since Harry was used to tying arm-wraps when he decided to incorporate them into his wardrobe, he was able to tie it off at the end with the minimum of difficulty, cutting of the tails with a quick stroke of his kunai.

It wasn't brilliant, but it would do, at least until the test was over, then he would go have it checked out at the hospital to make sure it hadn't got infected or something. It was out of the question to quit the 'exam' now, especially now that Anko had also taken his hitae-ate. His pride as a ninja and an Uchiha was on the line.

"How the hell am I meant to face up to someone like Anko?" Harry muttered to himself as he stroked the fire with a twig. "I've heard that a Jonin might be able to be taken down by a genin team if they work together, but I've never heard of one being taken down by a single rookie ninja before."

"_Humans are so noisy. I hope it shuts up soon so I can sleep."_

"Who asked you, you…" Harry turned round to snap, but froze, suddenly realising what had just happened. Someone had just spoken to him, or at least about him and in a way that had a strange accent to it that Harry had never heard before. And add to that fact that the only other person in this forest apart from himself that had the ability to hold a conversation with him (he was no Aburame after all) was Anko. So unless it was Anko playing some sort of joke just to torment him even more, or it was some sort of genjutsu, Harry had no idea what it could be.

Jumping to a crouch, Harry pulled out a kunai to face whomever or whatever it was that had just spoke, but paused when he didn't see anything immediately. "Who are you," Harry said darkly, eyeing the area to see any movements in the flickering shadows. "Show yourself!"

Once more, the same soft hissed voice reached his ears and there was a movement just at the edge of the glow from the fire.

"_Stupid as well. Perhaps I should just eat it; I was beginning to get hungry."_

Harry jumped at hearing those words and threw a kunai before he could stop himself, it landing point first in the dirt, vibrating from the impact in front of the moving shadows. "Like hell you will! I didn't let that damned tiger eat me, so I sure as hell aren't about to let you!"

"_It heard me? It understood? A speaker?" _the voice sounded startled._ "To think that I would meet a speaker here, of all places…"_

Harry's eyes widened as they landed on where the voice seemed to be coming from. What moved was not a ninja, nor was it any other type of human. No, what moved slightly, turning beady eyes upon him was a snake. And not just any snake, but one that had to be some form of python, but it was far bigger than any snake he had spotted in the forest, or even during his training. It had to be at least as big as that tiger had been, if not larger. Hell, it was certainly longer. Its skin a blend of greens, browns and blues, black diamond shapes running down its back and was currently staring at Harry in what looked almost like a surprise and awed expression. But…that was impossible! No normal animal, even an oversized one, except for summons, could talk!

"You can…talk!" Harry blurted out, too stunned to even think of how idiotically obvious that statement was.

The snake's head swivelled around towards him, raising to eye level. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that it was frowning at him. Its expression clearly said '_Of course, silly human speaker'._

Harry frowned. "I'm not silly, stupid. I've just never heard a snake talking before."

"_Have you ever been near a snake before?"_

Harry blushed. "Not really. I'm not that stupid. Most snakes around these parts are poisonous. You're not some sort of summon are you? Another one of those chakra snakes, are you? Cause if you are, you can get lost."

"_Me? No. I just came here from the forest to share the fire. It's lovely and warm. But then your ranting interrupted me from sleeping. Still, I have never met a human who could speak before"_

Harry just couldn't help but stare at the python as it slithered closer to the fire, almost gulping as he saw exactly how big it was. However, what the snake had just said caught his attention and he frowned up at it, giving the snake an odd look. "What do you mean I speak? Of course I speak."

The snake hissed – was it laughing at him? - and responded, "Y_ou misunderstand me, young speaker - I mean you speak the honourable and noble language of snakes. It is very rare. Some of the elder snakes had spoken of it, those who came from beyond, but never have I seen it with my own eyes – a human who speaks the tongue of serpents."_

Harry blinked, reeling back in surprise, staring at the serpent mere metres away from him. _I'm… speaking another language? But how? The only people I know of that can talk to other animals are the Inuzuka and the Aburame. I've never heard of anyone who can speak to snakes. Then again, I've never heard of anyone who had two Kekkei Genkai before…unless it's some sort of Magical Kekkei Genkai?_ It sort of made sense. Most Kekkei Genkai were activated through chakra. Magic was a different energy entirely, so it was possible, he guessed. He'd have to check it out once he was at Hogwarts again. He was sure Hermione at least would know if there was a book on the subject.

"That makes it the third language I know," Harry mused to the Python, absently noting this time that his own voce seemed to hiss, even as his mind translated it into everyday tongue. "But I never learnt it before this."

"_There are many legends among us that tell of those who spoke the tongue. It is an honour to meet such a human, young speaker. Even if it is mere legend to most of us, it is an honour to serve one who speaks the tongue."_

Harry was surprised that the snake, which had been threatening that it would eat him when he had first seen it, was now talking to him respectfully. (The fact that it was a non-summon talking at all was hard enough to grasp). It was as he was pondering these thoughts when a sudden idea came to his mind. If what he was getting from this snake was true, then perhaps…

"Sorry but…do you mean to say that, if I asked some of the other serpents in this area, they would be willing to help me?"

The python looked at him for a moment, its tongue flicking out into the air. Finally, it spoke. _"It's possible. Very possible,"_ it said slowly. _"Some may be more willing than others, however. As I say, Speakers are rare. Some may not believe the hearsay. But if you speak with them in the Tongue, they will agree. It is sacred law among us."_

Harry paused for a moment, thinking over what the snake had just told him. _If what it was saying was true,_ Harry thought, _I might actually have an idea that could get me to pass Anko's test._ A smile brightened on his face and he turned back to the serpent warming itself by the fire. It was worth a try. After all, if the snakes were unwilling, there was no one else around here that could speak the tongue, at least, from the surprised way that the snake had been talking.

"Hey, Hebi-san," He said, addressing the python politely. He grinned as it turned to him. "If you're willing, I think I've got an idea to try out to pass this test my sensei gave to me, but I'll need your help and maybe the help of some of your friends as well."

The python looked him up and down as he explained his plan to the snake in front of him. If he didn't know any better, once he had finished, he'd say it was grinning. _"Interesting…I think this may be quite enjoyable. Quite enjoyable indeed - I think I will aid you, young speaker."_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry worked long into the night and part way into the next morning to get his plans into action, despite the heavy rain slowly soaking into his torn shirt and shorts. After all, making plans to enlist the snakes' help in setting a trap for Anko, using his newly discovered ability, was one thing, but actually putting them into action was another. Who knew that some snakes could be so argumentative? It had taken him at least an hour of arguing to one particular stubborn one until they were both reduced to: "Please." "No." "Please." "No." "Please." "No." "Please." "ALRIGHT ALREADY WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP!"

However, despite the trouble and the fact that Harry was a little worried he might later develop pneumonia from staying out in the rain, he managed to gather enough snakes and position them around the edges of the clearing for when he was ready to fight Anko. It was almost close to midday by the time Harry had set everything up, pausing only to eat from his merge store of dried fish and had a quick nap, positioning himself so that when the sun reached about eleven – in an hours time – the light would wake him. Finally, he stepped into the clearing where Anko was waiting patiently…sort of.

Tapping her foot on the ground, she turned to face Harry as soon as he entered the clearing, a deep frown on her face. "Where the hell were you? I was expecting you hear much earlier, brat – you don't have that long until our test is over, you know."

Harry laughed, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Sorry, sorry." He flashed a cheeky half-grin half-smirk at her. "I just had a few things to take care of."

Anko surveyed the young Uchiha in front of her, taking note of his dishevelled appearance. There were faint traces of bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept at all last night. One sleeve ripped to his elbow and his arm bandaged underneath – a memento from their last meeting and his hair looking even more untidy than usual (which said something, since she had the hitae-ate that made his hair stick up at odd-er angles when he wore it). However, he had a smirk on his face that looked like it had been copied straight from her own, his eyes burned with determination.

Likewise, Harry noted that his would-be sensei will had some burn marks all over her coat ends – easily pointing out where his exploding tagged kunai had almost blown up on her. Too bad it had missed her though, otherwise this would have been over already. Still, if it had, he probably wouldn't have found out about his ability to talk to snakes for some time.

"Well then, Uchiha-Bozo, are you ready for another beating?" Anko asked, walking up to him with a grin on her face. Harry just looked at her, his face fading from a smirk to a blank mask. Even she couldn't tell what the boy was thinking. "You've only got until sunrise to hit me. At this rate, you'll never pass this test."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. No need to nag." Harry growled at her, slipping into the beginning stance of the Uchiha forms. "Like you said, I don't have time to play around with you. Bring it on, Whacked-out Psycho!"

"Good!" Anko grinned, licking her lips as though she was looking forward to seeing what Harry had in store for her today. "Ready? Now!"

Harry pulled out a kunai, flipping it in one hand, his wand pulled out of the other. His green eyes blazed red once, before turning back to green and he attacked. First he flung out kunai, both normal and tagged before shooting out a curse from his wand, the red beam shooting out towards her. Anko back-flipped away and had to dodge several times before the explosions caught her and was almost cut between a flying kunai and a hex. Anko somehow managed to avoid hitting either by shooting a Sen'eijashu at the ground, throwing herself up into the air. While she was up there, Harry fixed her with his eyes, his hands flashing through hand-seals.

"**Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu**!"

Five fireballs shot up towards her and Anko, looking slightly startled, twisted herself in the air to perform some jutsu that Harry couldn't see. He could only guess it was a suiton jutsu from the way the flames vanished into steam. However, the shuriken hidden in the flames were merely slowed.

"Kuso!" Anko yelled, somehow managing to send her charka snakes out and imbed their teeth into a branch, pulling herself away barely in time to avoid the shuriken that whipped passed her. She twisted and landed on the ground into a crouch, her eyes fixed on Harry, a smirk twisting its way onto her lips. If Harry didn't know any better, he'd say she was enjoying it!

With a burst of charka in her feet, Anko shot forwards, a kunai in her mouth and her hands starting in some kind of hand seals.

No way Harry was going to let her finish! Harry gave a long low hiss

Somewhere behind her, something broke through the ground, leaping towards Anko with fangs bared, forked tongue lashing about in the pink mouth of something that could only be a 'Forest of Death' snake.

"What the-?" Anko exclaimed, twisting out of the attack on Harry, pushing herself away as the snake lurched at her, skidding away from it, only to find another snap at her heals, followed by a third that dropped out of one of the overhead trees. She dodged it, skidding away, only to be met by a roundhouse kick shooting right for her head. Her eyes widened and she barely managed to bring up her arm in time to block, her other hand bracing her arm against the impact. The force caused the both of them to scoot backwards, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Seconds later, he felt Anko's hand snap around, grabbing his ankle in a vice-grip.

Harry glared at her with emerald eyes, a smirk forming on his face as he stared into hazel, drawing his arm back to send it plunging into her stomach. However, spooked as she was about being attacked by snakes, she was still a jonin. Her eyes caught sight of it at the last second and immediately threw him away from her, his fist merely brushing against the tanned coat as he rolled away.

_Just what is this kid!_

"What the hell did you do, Uchiha?" Anko gasped, shocked by the varity of snakes that had jumped up at her from just a soft hiss from the young man. "Are they summons?" She eyed them, her eyes flickering back and forth between the huge hissing snakes slithering across the ground and staring at her hungrily and the boy in front of her, slowly picking himself up from the hit with a slight smile on his face. "No, they can't be – no genin can summon so many at one time. Not to mention that there's only two people who can summon snakes. What did you do?"

Harry raised himself up to full height, wiping away a small smudge of dirt away from his cheek. The slight smirk that said 'I know something you don't' still quirked the corners of his mouth, even as he was panting softly to get his breathing under control. "No. I wasn't taught any summons – the Uchihas never used any that I know of before that day. And despite what you might think, or what the old man might have told you, I can't say its cause I copied it off of anyone either. But I think you might have forgotten the reason why I needed special arrangements in my training to begin with – I'm not just of a ninja clan, but I'm also a wizard. I have two heritages to call upon, it seems."

"Two heritages…" Anko muttered to herself. She shot Harry an odd look. "So you mean you bewitched them?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but it looks like even wizards have some Maho Kekkei Genkai. Like the Aburame and Inuzuka, it looks like I can talk to animals as well – Perhaps the Potter clan, or my mother's clan had such abilities. All I did was ask the local snakes if they would mind helping me out - there was a reason I didn't come to find you as soon as the sun came up!"

Anko gaped at Harry. "No way…" He heard her whisper, in shock, almost in awe. "Not even that bastard could actually talk to snakes…" Suddenly, she seemed to pull herself out of whatever thought process she was in, her raptor's gaze resting back on the Uchiha. "Heh, Kid, it looks like you really are full of surprises – even without a team, you're working together with snakes – and non-summoned ones as well! Even if you don't pass this test, I think that you may have got my respect." She smirked as she pulled out her kunai, brown eyes fixed on Harry's green. "Still, I hope you don't take this…too personally." She burst forwards at such a speed that Harry had to gasp, barely getting his own kunai up in time, not enough time to hiss a word to the snakes. It was only at the last minute that Harry realised exactly what she was trying to do.

"The Jaran Geki!" Harry gasped in horror, remembering his other encounter. Unfortunately, he could do nothing to stop it as the hammering of fists and kunai stopped him from escaping melee range.

Harry bit back a cry as her kick got through his defence, throwing him up into the air. His eyes snapped open as he felt the woman jump up beside him, kunai in her hands, ready. Harry gasped, ignoring the pain shooting through his abused ribs and moved to defend, using his hand-kunai against the dozens of throwing ones, barely managed to avoid one that would have sliced into the skin of his arm, the steel snagging against his sleeve. She dropped upon him, pushing him back towards the earth with her feet, throwing him away from herself. A smirk formed on her face and he immediately knew what she was going to do.

_Here it comes!_ Harry formed the ram seal and focused charka to his eyes, the irises turning from emerald green to blood red in seconds. _This might be my only chance!_

"You may have got those snakes to help you, brat, but you won't be conscious after this!" Anko yelled, her hands moving into seals. Sharingan locked onto them and he copied it perfectly. Even as they finished the seals as one, both pulled back their arms. Both punched them forwards, the technique's name renouncing with two voices.

"**SEN'EIJASHU!**"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry blinked, then blinked again as he slowly swam back up to consciousness, his head feeling a little fuzzy as the newly broken morning light fell into his eyes, stinging them with its brightness.

Wait…newly morning?

Harry sat up immediately, wincing as his body and the back of his head protested at the sudden movement, burning in pain and he brought his hand to it to stop the spinning, feeling a lump already starting to rise under his hair. However, that was nothing compared to what he was seeing. He stared in horror at the sun rising over the thick trees, its position indicating that it was already morning. Immediately a deep sense of despair fell over him.

He'd…lost.

He didn't really know what to feel. On one side, he wanted to rant and rage about just how unfair it was. On another, he wanted to break down a weep, knowing that all that hard work had come to nothing. As it was, the only thing Harry could feel besides the stinging of his wounds and the protests of his muscles was numbness.

"You focused all your energy into using the Sen'eijashu and forgot about your landing and banged your head. Baka-geki," Harry jumped and turned to look at Anko who was sitting on the thick roots of a tree, looking down at him with a curious expression – an amused smile playing about her lips. "Still," she continued, tugging down her tan coat, revealing a slightly blooded and bruised shoulder, fang marks dug deep in the spaces between the metal fishnet, "if you didn't, you wouldn't have hit me in a million years. Although I wouldn't call it perfect, a strike's a strike." Anko beamed at him. Not in here sneering way, or in a way that made you think she was about to come and gut you, but an energetic grin that matched Naruto's fox-grin any day. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled something out, tossing it into Harry's lap. "Congrats, kid. You just passed my test."

"I…I passed?" Harry stuttered, trying to work out just what the kunoichi had said. But that couldn't be right. Anko must have given him concussion. Yes, that must be it – there was no way that what she said could be true. However, he blinked down at what she had thrown at him and his eyes almost fell out of his head. There in his lap, was his hitae-ate, folded neatly, its metal plate glinting up at him as the sun flickered behind the swaying leaves, its Leaf engraving winking up at him.

Anko grinned and clapped him on the back, causing him to lurch forward, strong enough to make his cuts and grazes sting. "Yes, brat, you pass. I'm impressed that you managed to do it. You're the only genin that I know who has ever managed to land a hit on me. The reason I gave you this test in the first place is because when I do missions, if I'm going to take a student, I want to know that they'll be able to watch their own backs and mine if we're ever put into that situation. Because of that, I pushed you to your limits, to see how you could handle the life of a shinobi and boy, Uchiha, did you impress me! You got guts, kid, I like that. So, from now on, I'll be your Jonin sensei."

Harry stared at her for a moment longer, before his foggy mind finally – finally - realised what she had just said. His hand hesitantly clasping around the metal plate, before a smile broke out on his face, excited, elated, despite the fact he was bruised all over. Suddenly, that didn't matter at all. He had done it. He had actually done it!

"I passed! I Passed! Wahoo!" Harry couldn't help it. Uchiha or not, he had just managed to pass the Jonin's test – he was officially a genin and he was going to start missions as a genin starting first thing. Dignity, pride, who cares, he just passed! "For a Psycho-sensei, you're actually pretty cool!"

The kunoichi stared at the sudden change in the genin, before she burst out laughing at Harry's sudden enthusiasm. "But don't think I'm gonna go easy on you, just because you managed to pass my test, brat," Anko said, hands on her hips and a toothy grin on her face. "At eight tomorrow, we're going to see what you're really made of, because you'll be getting your first mission, Uchiha."

Harry grinned, all weariness and pain forgotten as he pumped his fist into the air. "Hai, Sensei!" Suddenly he winced as all of his muscles protested and he collapsed back on the ground, twitching. "Itaiiiiiiiiiii…"

Anko rolled her eyes. "Baka-Geki…"

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

Ohayo – Good morning

Baka – idiot, stupid

Itai – Ow, Ouch

Hai – yes

Sensei – teacher

Bozo – boy, brat, that type of thing

Geki – Kid, brat

Hebi – snake

Henge – transform

Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit

Maho – magic

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu – Fire release: grand fireball jutsu

Hosenka no Jutsu – Fire release: Immortal Phoenix flame jutsu

Kage Bunshin no jutsu – Shadow clone jutsu

Sen'eijashu – Hidden Shadow Snake hands

Jaran Geki – literally Jaran attack. It was from a Naruto game actually, an attack used by Anko. The fight where she uses it is an adaptation from the game

**Chosha's Notes**

Oh…My…God! That was so long! And so hard for me! Was I a little OOC with Anko at all? I hope not… But who would have thought that the interactions between Anko and Harry would be so hard for their first meeting – not to mention the fights! Not to mention I wasn't happy with this chapter and kept going back to change stuff. Oh well…there you have it! What did you think? I know that using Anko was a bit of a cliché, but aren't HP-Naru xovers as well? My reasoning behind this? Your votes of course! Just have a look at the poll below:

Genma: 12

Yamato: 10

OC: 2

Other Jonin – (these being: Ibiki: 3, Ebisu: 1, Jiraiya: 2, Kakashi: 2, Gai: 2, Shibi: 1, Tsume: 1, Hyate: 3, Sarutobi: 2, Aoba: 1)

But Anko came out on top at a whopping 32!

For everyone who wanted someone else, I'm sorry. Hopefully the stories I come up with will still live up to how I've been writing so far in your opinions. Not to worry for those who wanted someone else, however – I do have a few ideas for at least three of the others to play a teaching roll. After all, there are still the chunin exams to think about. More on that closer to the time, however. And for the other part of the poll…

Apprenticeship: 25

Team: 6

Just a few comments to make about this chapter. I have to say, first and foremost, that I struggled with this chapter – the fight scenes in particular. So I'm sorry if they were a little pathetic. The tiger scene was just for the sake of it. I thought it was funny. The chapter got very serious at one point, so I thought I'd stick a little humour into it. Finally, the test itself. Most people write the bell test. Admit it, its been used thousends of times, even when the sensei isn't Kakashi. I have a feeling that the bell test was designed by Sarutobi and was changed to fit the needs of Jiraiya, Yondaime and Kakashi. Orochimaru, however, taught Anko. Can you see him using the bell test and preaching teamwork? I think not. Therefore, Anko had her own test to see if her student would be able to keep up with her lifestyle (most of her missions are long-distance, I've read, and I can't see her having much patients with D-ranked missions, can you?)

Anyway, all that out of the way, did you like it, or did you hate it? Either way, please review. If you don't like it, at least be constructive with criticisms, otherwise the review will be ignored, no offence.

Oh, and if anyone has any ideas for a few missions Harry and Anko-sensei can go on, then please tell me. So far, I've got an idea to send him off to swamp country, or snow country, but if you have any good ideas, then I might use that instead. If I do use an idea, then I'll even dedicate the chapter to you! My Idea isn't overly brilliant at the moment, so I'm open to suggestions!

Oh yes, one last thing to do…

Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter:

**Harry:** what the hell is this? You call washing dishes; cutting lawns and catching lost pets missions? Why do these missions suck so bad!

**Anko:** zip it brat – that's what genin like you get!

**Harry:** to hell with it – I want a real mission!

**Sarutobi:** alright, if you want a better mission so bad…

**Harry:** …Hang on Hokage-ojii, you want Anko-sensei and me to do what kind of mission? Next episode: C-class? Harry's Big Mission!

But, until next time, Ja ne for now!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	11. Chapter 10: C Class? Harry's Big Mission

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

**Beta'd by Paradox Of Life**

**Chosha's Notes**

Hello everyone! Welcome back! Sorry for the long wait, but I thought I'd better update at least one of my other stories before I got lynched. Anyways, I just wanted to say to everyone thank you so much for you reviews! They meant a lot to me. I'm glad that even those of you who hadn't wanted Anko for a sensei still found that the interactions between Harry and Anko were still unique. Arigato gozaimasu, mina-san!

I also want to thank everyone who sent me ideas on missions for Harry-kun and Anko-sensei. To those whose missions will be used, they will have a chapter dedicated to them. I'm sorry if your mission wasn't written just now, but just know that they were not forgotten and may make an appearance at a later date, so please watch out for future missions with Harry-kun and Anko! I'm still on the lookout for missions for later on, too, so if you still have ideas, please tell them to me and the chapter will be dedicated to you.

**Important:** This chapter is dedicated to **Zmanjz** and to **Spellcaster Hikaru** – both of who gave me the ideas for this mission. So, **Zmanjz** and **Spellcaster Hikaru**, arigato Gozaimasu!

_**Edit: **__The chapter has also been beta'd by _**Paradox Of Life**_. Thanks for your edits! Chapter Beta'd 23__rd__ September 2011_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter. Their respective owners – Masashi Kishimoto and JK Rowling - reserve all rights.

**Previously on Uchiha Potter:** Harry returned to Konoha for the summer but discovered he could not be placed on a team, but was to be apprenticed instead. Meeting Mitarashi Anko, Harry had to pass a test in the Forest of Death by tracking Anko and landing a hit on her. If he couldn't do so in two days, he would be sent back to the academy. In a fight that knocked him out, Harry managed to land a hit on her using a copied jutsu and Anko accepted him as her student.

**Dedicated to Zmanjz and Spellcaster Hikaru**

**Chapter Ten:**

**C-class? Harry's Big Mission!**

Harry sat on the edge of one of the hospital beds, currently stripped to his waist as a medic-nin checked over the numerous cuts and bruises from his two-day exertion in the Forest of Death. After the test had finally come to a close Anko had decided that, to make sure he hadn't knocked himself stupid when he had hit his head in his landing, that he should get checked up to make sure he wasn't going to suffer from permanent brain damage. Oh yes, and to make sure that her chakra snakes hadn't poisoned him by accident. (Harry's blood had run cold at that when she had given one of her laughs again – just what was he getting himself into?) So, as soon as they got out, she promptly dumped him at the hospital with her instructions to meet her for their first mission at eight near the memorial before she took off. So, having little choice but to do what the crazy jonin had said, Harry had, reluctantly, allowed himself to be checked over.

The young genin sighed, trying his best not to fidget and roll his eyes as the medic-nin checked him over, prodding and poking him at odd intervals to check that he hadn't broken any bones and to see how far the 'damage' had gone. He felt his eyebrow tick, then winced at a particularly painful prod at his ribs.

If he had the choice, he wouldn't have been here at all.

Oh, don't get him wrong, he couldn't deny that the medics did a good job of sorting out the various injuries that the ninja lifestyle sustained, no, nothing of the sort. Perhaps it was because there was a lot of bad memories associated with hospitals – and, as such, the medic-nin's themselves – after he had woken up to find all of his family bar Sasuke were gone, or that he seemed to need their expertise far more often than he would like. But whatever reason it was, Harry, given the choice, would rather deal with it himself.

Still, even with that dislike of Medic-nin, he couldn't help but admit that their jutsu left him in awe despite himself.

He watched in silent fascination as the medic-nin finished his bodily examination and formed a few seals so that his hand glowed a soft blue with chakra. Gently, the medic-nin lowered his hand inches away from Harry's skin, which began to skim over the surface of his body, staring with the lump on his head, which tingled as the jutsu started its work, to his shoulders and chest, around to his back and down his arms. No matter how many times he had seen it, he still found it awesome to see the wounds closing and bones mending with little more than a few movements of a glowing hand. As he watched, the numerous grazes and cuts slowly began to close under the direction of the chakra.

When he reached Harry's arm, his eyebrows twitched upwards for a moment, before silently checking it. With a nod, he placed a salve on it and treated the fang-marks. Thankfully for Harry, the man didn't ask how he had come to get such strange wounds.

"There you go, Uchiha-san," said the medical ninja finally, starting to tidy up his supplies. "You might be a little sore for a day or two, but it's nothing a good night's sleep shouldn't heal. Your arm should be fine as well, but if it begins to swell, or get infected, come see me. Try not to strain yourself for today. Other than that, you'll be fine."

Harry nodded towards the healer gratefully and picked up his rather beaten shirt from the side. "Alright. Thanks for the effort." Even if he didn't like having to go to see Medic-nin, even Harry knew that he should at least be polite to them. After all, if he were ever mortally wounded, they would be the ones to hold his life in their hands after all.

The medic-nin bowed in Harry's direction respectfully before picking up his things and heading towards the door. It was then that Harry had an idea. After all, if that test with Anko was just to test his skills, what would it be like on missions or training with the kunoichi?

"Hey, Isha-san, do you have any good scrolls on medical-jutsu?"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Discharging himself from the hospital was as easy as it always was, although the paperwork was still rather tedious. Even though he had spent little more that two hours or so in the hospital, he still found himself faced with the same standard paperwork he had been given in his longer stays. Harry rolled his eyes, but dutifully filled it in, if only to get it over and done with and get out of there ASAP.

Having only the clothes that he'd worn through Anko's test in the Forest, Harry was pretty much ready for a shower once he got home, along with a change of clothes. His aching limbs screamed at him that he should just head straight to bed and sleep for the rest of the day, especially since he had barely had more than an hour's sleep while in the forest (unless you counted the time he was unconscious). Still, even though Harry felt ready to join the comatose in sleep for a week, Harry couldn't help but marvel at how lucky he had been of late. Not only had he faced a jonin head on and somehow managed to land a hit on her (not to mention having actually come out alive at the end of it!) thus passing her test, but he had also copied a new jutsu in the process. And now he had managed to ask after a healing jutsu from a medic-nin.

Harry was well aware that, because he wasn't a medic-nin, or training to be one, the medics might very well have been reluctant to indulge him. After all, it wasn't like they had all that much time to spare. They lived in a ninja village after all, so that wasn't surprising. Still, it looked like lady luck liked him for a change. Although rather surprised by the request, the medic-nin was happy to oblige him – although Harry was unsure whether this was because he was an Uchiha or not that the man had been so eager to help out. Either way, Harry had left with a scroll containing a jutsu called 'Shosen Jutsu', Mystic Hands Technique.

If what Harry had read was right, it concentrated chakra into the hands to help heal wounds and, at a higher level, even perform surgery without even having to cut open a person to do it. The medic-nin explained that it could even be used to attack with by cutting open muscles or even internal organs – a very good defensive and offensive attack in the medical arsenal, in Harry's opinion. It needed precision to use, but combined with Harry's newly developed sharingan, it would make his taijutsu as deadly as the Hyuuga's Jyuuken-ryu.

Still, with how complicated the jutsu looked, Harry guessed it would probably take him some time to learn without directly copying the jutsu from someone. However, he didn't think it appropriate to tell the medic-nin to perform it and cut up someone's insides just so he could copy the jutsu. Apart from it being highly immoral to do such a thing to a fellow leaf-nin, it would still take a little time to hone it to use its many different jobs effectively. Well, even a Kekkei Genkai had its down sides. Still, his Sharingan could help him to memorise the scroll and learn the jutsu much faster than he would have done normally.

Yes, despite being dog-tired and about ready to just curl up and sleep for a week, Harry was pretty pleased with himself.

He was still going to sleep for the rest of the day, though.

Double-checking that his apartment building wasn't up in flames – it had become an unconscious act by this point - Harry made his way to his apartment and unlocked the door, disabling the usual traps around it before entering. He paused for a moment, before frowning and looking about the hall.

_Hn, everything looks okay._

Unfortunately, that wasn't quite as encouraging as one would have thought, considering exactly who he had for little brothers. Harry slowly closed the door behind him, looking around the apartment with a critical eye. So far nothing seemed trashed or broken, but Harry wasn't keeping his hopes up. After all, even if Sasuke and Naruto were as close as real, blood-related brothers were, they still managed to turn his place upside down fairly easily.

He blamed it on prankster influence.

"Sasuke? Naruto?" Harry called wearily. "You guys in? I'm home."

From somewhere inside, Harry could hear a sudden squawk of surprise and/or relief and a sudden sound of a thump and a scrambling of some kind from within the confines of the apartment reached his ears. Faster than his tired brain had time to process that information, Harry suddenly found himself engulfed by two rather heavy figures, both of who seemed to be attempting to squeeze all the life out of him.

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU!"

Harry almost reeled back at the shout that could have been heard all the way to the Hokage tower. But what surprised him the most was that it wasn't just Naruto doing the shouting, but Sasuke as well. Both boys were currently latched onto him and seemed to be competing with each other on who could break his ribs first.

"Sasuke…Naruto…let…go…can't…breathe…" Harry tried to gasp out while doing his best to prise the two younger boys off of him. Neither boy budged an inch. Surprised – after all, he knew both could be clingy, but not this clingy – Harry began to get apprehensive. "Come on guys, this isn't funny any more – what the hell is wrong with you?" Harry was really getting worried now, especially when a choked off sob came from one of the heads buried in his chest.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. You just vanished and were missing for two days! Two days! Do you know what we thought? We thought that crazy-jonin you told us about had killed you, dumb-ass Aniki!"

"Yeah, yeah! You must have left your head at the dry-cleaners or something!"

Harry had to blink at that. Sasuke was yelling at him? Sasuke never yelled at him unless Harry had been teasing him a little too much. Blinking, Harry looked as Sasuke raised his head. Staring up at him with an almost wild-eyed expression bordering on barely controlled terror and anger, Sasuke looked as though his graphic imagination had got the better of him and had probably worried himself sick wondering what had happened to him. Harry wracked his brains, trying to think of what could have happened to cause them to act this way-

Oh, yes, that was right. He hadn't told his brothers his test would be longer than just a few hours. And he'd been gone for two days straight with no word.

…Oops.

He wondered why it had taken him so long to realise. Perhaps he really should take that Medic-nin's advice and have some sleep. Obviously he was still exhausted, or still had a slight concussion.

"You think I wouldn't have told you if I'd known I'd be away for two days? Its not like it's my fault! Anko-sensei didn't tell me that the test would take longer than a few hours…" Harry whined at the two boys. He tried to pry them off, but it wasn't working – it just made them latch onto him with even more force. Harry winced as their arms pressed into a particularly sore area that wasn't fully healed yet. "Could you let me in now? I'm really tired and dirty and I only just got back from the hospital after two days in the Forest of Death, so…"

Sasuke paled. "H-Hospital?"

Harry winced. Oops. _Guess I shouldn't have said that in front of Sasuke. I forgot he gets really paranoid if I had to get a stubbed toe checked by a medic-nin. Guess I shouldn't blame him, after that incident…_ Suddenly, all of his senses went on high alert when the two younger boys exchanged a look, then fixed Harry with an impenetrable stare, one black, one blue. That was all the warning he got before they pounced. "What the-! Get the hell off of me!" Harry exclaimed, literally trying to escape now when both boys suddenly leapt on top of the genin and began to pull the shirt from his back.

"Woah…" Naruto stared wide-eyed.

Harry shifted uncomfortably as his brothers stared as his now bare chest in a mix of horror and sympathetic winces. Despite all that the medic-nin had done for him, only the cuts and grazes from the fight had truly healed, although the deeper ones still left a pale pink mark, which, like the numerous bruises, would eventually fade. Several dark purple blotches marked his pale skin and his arm was still bandaged where the snakes had bitten him. His brothers just stared. Feeling extremely self-conscious under his brothers' gaze, Harry shrugged it off, flashing his brothers a sheepish grin. "Yeah…about that. Anko-sensei's test was pretty damned hard. I mean hitting a jonin when you're in a team is hard – try it on your own!"

"Woah, you mean the crazy Anko lady did this to you?" Naruto said, half in shock, half in awe. After all, Harry was one of the few people who had ever stood up to the other villagers and he had seen Harry fight on numerous occasions. He was older, more experienced than him. He was one of Naruto's role models. To think that someone could beat him so badly seemed almost unthinkable to Naruto's young mind.

Harry could feel his eyebrow starting to twitch as his younger brothers proceeded to prod and poke at his various wounds and bruises with looks a mixture of utter fascination and pained sympathy on their faces. However, it was obvious the former emotion prevailed as they continued to search him for the various souvenirs Harry had covering his body from his expedition in the forest of death at the hands of his newly instated sensei.

"Did ya get thrown through a brick wall or something, Nii-san?" Naruto asked in amazement as he continued to poke him. He prodded at Harry's still bruised ribs

"Dammit Naruto! If you don't cut it out I'm gonna use you for target practice!" Harry yelled as he struck a rather tender spot. Naruto jumped back, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as Harry silently fumed. Rubbing his healing bruises, Harry looked back over at his two honouree-brothers from under his bangs. Sasuke, although he looked as though he had calmed down a little, sill had a worried look in his eye as he watched Harry carefully, his dark eyes scanning him for any signs of anything serious. Naruto, despite his guilty blush from poking and prodding at him for far too long also didn't seem quite so carefree. His azure eyes also alight with a slight worry. He cast them a wonky grin. "Don't you worry about me, they're only bruises – nothing a good meal and a decent night sleep wont cure. Key words being 'good meal' and 'decent nights sleep'. So, what's for dinner? I'm starved! I'll tell you all about my test while I'm eating."

Seconds later, Harry found himself shoved in a chair at the table, ramen and onigiri sitting in front of him and both of his brothers eagerly leaning forwards in their seats, waiting to hear all about it. Harry rolled his eyes in fond exasperation as he began his story, both boys listening with rapt fascination.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"First that hell-cat Tora, now this…" Harry muttered under his breath, propping his head up on his palm and heaved a sigh, rolling a leaf between the fingers of his free hand in boredom. "Man, and I thought the missions back at Hogwarts were dumb…"

A week had passed since Harry's encounter with Anko in the Forest of Death and the young Uchiha had begun his tutoring under the jonin as her genin student. So far, their days had settled into an odd routine of alternate training and mission days.

The training days Harry both relished and dreaded. As a trainer, Anko was quite a strict taskmaster, despite all her teachings seeming to be wrapped up in sadistic teasing. Still, when she was serious, Harry found himself needing all of his energy to keep up with her to avoid a repeat of his condition in the Forest of Death. Although she wasn't a medic in any way, shape or form, Anko did know how to decipher scrolls very well and, on their training days, she had already started to instruct him on use of the Shosen Jutsu the medic-nin had given to him. He'd get up early, trained until he dropped, sparred and trained some more. He had begun honing his Sen'eijashu using his ability to talk to snakes (an idea Anko had got from Harry asking the forest snakes to help him out during the test) and practising the Shosen, and would come back at sundown ready to collapse. However, since he had started training with her, Harry could almost feel himself stronger than he had been.

On the other days, however…Harry had to say that he was almost ready to set the Hokage tower on fire. Missions? Hah! The stuff he had been given couldn't even be reasonably classed as missions! Harry had spent almost a week of doing the lamest jobs he could think of. And when he said lame, he meant lame. After all, what kinds of missions were cutting lawns, painting walls and chasing runaway cats? It was humiliating! Most civilians could do most of these missions! And people thought he was lazy!

"These are just starting missions, Uchiha," Anko told him when Harry had objected on the second day of 'missions'. "Much as I hate doing D-Ranks, I need to know how you deal with other problems. Besides, Uchiha, you can't do higher ranked missions until you've done at least ten D-Ranks. That's just the way it goes. So suck it up and deal with it, brat!"

The only good thing that Harry could think about all this was that at least his spatial awareness and speed of reactions had grown with Anko for a teacher making things interesting during the mind-numbing hours of cutting lawns and washing dishes. Occasionally she would throw rocks and other things at him just to keep him on his toes. If she hadn't put the added obstacles up in these so-called missions Harry was sure he would have gone on a rampage by this point.

Presently, Harry was perched in a tree-branch in a small woodland area on the outskirts of the village limits and was doing his up most not to pout and fidget as he scanned the grassy clearing in front of him. Around his neck was a high-tech radio system, the small microphone resting close to his mouth and an ear-peace in one ear. According to Anko, these were often used in stealth missions.

_And to think, when she said that, she got me thinking I had a real mission_, Harry grumbled mentally. _Dumb sensei…_

There was a soft crackling in the ear peace and Harry brought his hand up to it, pressing it a little closer to his ear.

The radio crackled into life. _"Sensei to Midori-me, do you copy?"_

Harry eyebrow twitched at the nickname, but he took a deep breath and sighed, forcing himself not to scream down the radio and give up his position. "Copy," Harry muttered softly. The radio was extremely sensitive, so he didn't have to speak very loudly for His voice to be heard at the other end. He frowned before growling only slightly louder, "Now stop calling me Midori-me, psycho-sensei! Why do we need code names anyway? That target's just a damned-"

"_Stop being such a moron, Uchiha,"_ Anko cut him off, causing him to scowl. _"Now have you sighted the target or not?"_

Harry glanced around from around the branches of the tree, trying not to feel totally humiliated by the entire situation. "Target sighted…" Twitch, twitch went his eyebrow. "And this would be a lot easier if you would get off your ass and actually help you know!" he hissed down the communicator. Damn, he knew he was lazy, but at least he didn't just sit in a tree eating sweet bean cakes and shout orders down a radio to torture people while they had to work, now did he?

"_Why should I do that?"_ came Anko's amused voice. He could almost hear the smirk. _"This Mission is entirely specialised to you. Besides, while we're doing D-ranked missions and I'm not training you, I'm just your supervisor, so my job is to __supervise__, meaning I watch over you and make sure you don't screw up, Mi-do-ri-me-chan."_

Harry almost growled, tempted to toss the stupid thing into the bushes. "Just give the word, Sensei, and let's get this over with." he grumbled, his eyebrow giving another twitch. He was sure that he heard a slight breath of a laugh from the other end of the radio and, if Anko had been standing in front of him, he would have been hard pressed to control the urge to stick his tongue out at her, immature gesture or not.

"_What's your position?"_ The radio crackled into life once more.

"South by south-east," Harry replied. Sounded like Anko was done playing for the moment. "Sector C."

"_Target status?"_

"Heading towards the clearing." He narrowed his eyes as the target closed upon the area. "It should be upon the bait we set up soon."

"_Good. Don't approach the target just yet. Keep radio silence and take up position. Await my signal."_

"Yeah, yeah…"

"_What was that, Uchiha?"_ Anko asked, her tone dangerously sweet.

"I said, 'Roger'," Harry lied quickly.

"_That's what I thought you said. Now get going."_

"Hai."

Harry leapt off into the trees, a small fluttering leaf the only thing showing he had been there at all, barely touching one branch before bounding silently to another, keeping to the shadows of the leaves as he closed in on his position. Dropping into the branches of a nearby tree he crouched, his eyes narrowing slightly as he peered through the branches to spy on his unknowing target.

It was a snake. Not just any snake. Though not as big as the snakes in the Forest of Death, this didn't by any means make it any less dangerous. This snake was covered in scales the colour of poisonous greens and yellows and marked in inky black that made a warning to everyone that this snake was dangerous and practically screamed that one bite could inject you with enough poisons to fell a full-grown horse.

Now, if it had been anyone else, this most likely would have been a much higher classed mission than it was, but of course, this was Harry. And he had an unfair advantage that turned it into a D-classed mission on par with finding Tora (a genin's worst nightmare).

He could speak to them.

Harry was really regretting that he had told the old Hokage about that.

Above the baited area, a large cage hung in the trees, hidden by foliage and was suspended by a rope that was tied to the branch just above Harry's head, ready for the trap to be sprung. It was made mostly out of branches; meshed together tightly with thin steel wires which he usually reserved for his Sofushasan no Tachi so that it was strong enough to hold together. Thankfully, the serpent wasn't as large as those in the forest, otherwise he was sure that the cage would be about as sturdy as a leaf in a breeze, especially if the snake was angered. To be honest, if he was in the snake's place, he would be more than a little miffed himself. However, he wasn't going to fail a mission (even one as dumb as this) just because he was feeling sorry for the reptile.

Harry's eyes narrowed slightly as he peered through the leaves, watching as the serpent slithered into the clearing towards where the dead rodents lay, its poisonous green scales glinting slightly as it moved to curl around them, rearing back to strike and swallow them whole.

The radio crackled.

"_Now!"_

He didn't hesitate. Harry threw a kunai at the rope above him, cutting through it with ease. The dull 'thunk' of the kunai burying into the tree branch was the only thing to alert the snake as a cage fell upon it, trapping it within wooden bars too narrow for it to escape, yet too strong for it to bite through. The caged snake reared back, it's hood raised as it hissed angrily. Harry was sure he heard it swear.

Harry emerged from the bushes and approached his captive cautiously, watching it with a wary eye. Now he had the serpent where he wanted it; he would be damned if he knew how he was going to convince the thing to actually co-operate with him long enough to complete his mission, especially in the mood he was in. However, before Harry could formulate a plan of action, the snake spun around and glared at Harry through the bars of the cage, giving him a distinctly hungry look. Harry felt his eyebrow tick.

"Oh no you bloody well don't!" Harry hissed at the snake, causing it to reel back in shock. He was too pissed to even attempt politeness. "I've done about five dumb missions today and I'm not about to become a pile of snake-crap in a field just because you think I'm some kind of midday snack! Nuh-uh, No way, iie, not gonna happen, bub."

"_It spoke!"_ the snake looked, if at all possible, like it was about to have a heart attack. _"The human just spoke to me!"_

Harry rolled his eyes at that. Obviously, the snake was quite a young one, judging by that reaction. Or was one of the more stupid ones. "Yes, this human speaks, and it is speaking to you, so would you listen to me for a minute, or do we have to stand…er…sit around here all day glaring holes into each other?"

Thankfully it looked as though the snake wasn't completely stupid and managed to get a hold of itself. Its tongue flickered towards him as it swayed slightly, raising its head to eye-level. _"What is it you want to talk to me about, Speaker?"_ it asked, sounding a little suspicious. Harry almost sighed. He could already see that this was going to take a while.

_Just my luck that the snake that I needed to find would be a stubborn one…_ Harry groaned mentally. However, letting none of this show on his face, Harry sighed and began to explain. "Alright, here's the deal…"

Whoever thought that finding and convincing one of Fire country's deadly breed of poisonous snake to be milked for the Nara Biochemistry lab research was a good mission for him ought to be burned alive. Slowly!

It was a few hours later by the time he had finally convinced the serpent to stay still and allow him to milk it of the poison from its deadly fangs. In the end, he was forced to make a deal with the thing, and then another ten minutes to come to a good compromise that didn't involve Harry losing a body part and/or getting poisoned by the snake on his side of the bargain. Still, some creatures just didn't know when to quit.

"Bloody, stupid, moronic Hebi…" Harry growled under his breath as he finally let the serpent loose once more and made his way back to where his sensei was waiting for him, all the while muttering about moronic reptiles with one-track minds. He pointedly ignored the serpents slowly-turning-inaudible hisses about silly humans and their pointless and rather rude requests.

It wasn't long until he found Anko sitting on the thick roots of a tree close to the wood entrance, her legs swinging as she happily munched on sweet bean cakes. A mug of tea (how the hell had that got there? He was sure she couldn't have brought that with her stuffed in her coat. The mind boggled) sat steaming beside her, already half empty. Glaring at her with enough force to melt steel, evaporate her tea and set the forest on fire all at the same time, Harry stomped over to her and thrust out the bottle of snake venom.

"Sensei, I've completed the 'mission'," He made sure to inject as much venom into the word as he could, his voice literally dripping sarcasm, something that one didn't need to be a jonin to pick up on. Anko smirked and leaned down to Harry, patting his messy hair as Harry seethed, his eyebrow beginning to tick dangerously at the patronising gesture.

"Heh, heh, is widdle Hawy angwy?" Anko chuckled. "Awww, did you think we'd be off saving princess or something today, Uchiha?"

_Stuff sensitive equipment!_ Yanking the radio off of his neck, Harry brought it directly up to his mouth and screeched, "SCREW YOU SENSEI!"

Anko let out a shriek and toppled from her perch, ripping the radio away from her and tossing it into the grass, her ears ringing.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The door slammed open and Harry stormed into the room. Completely ignoring the other people at the missions office, Harry stalked over to the Hokage and slammed his hands on the table, making the shinobi next to him jump. "Ojiisan, we are going to have words right now!" Harry growled. He jabbed his finger at Sarutobi's chest. "What was the big idea, sending me on a mission to get poison from a damned snake for the Nara's? Do you even know how hard it is to convince the bloody things to stay still long enough to get it?"

All around him he could hear the other people muttering amongst themselves and staring at the Uchiha in a mixture of horror and awe that he was yelling at the most powerful shinobi in fire country. However, Harry honestly couldn't care less. He was too fed up to really give a damn. Dammit, even he had pride! "Seriously, Hokage-ojii. All I've done since I've come back from Hogwarts is chase that hell-animal 'Tora', clean toilets and milk venom from goddamned irritable and pushy snakes for the Nara biochemistry labs. Why do these missions suck so bad?"

Sarutobi sighed slightly at the fuming Uchiha standing in front of him. Really, he was surprised that the boy had lasted this long before he snapped. Next to Harry, Anko rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath about impatient brats that need to learn their place and was tenderly rubbing her ear from where Harry had shouted at her down the radio. However, the Hokage could see the slight glint of sardonic humour in those pupil-less orbs. "Harry, you have barely been doing D-ranked missions for a week…"

"No, no, no!" Harry growled out. He was done with these so-called missions. Even getting beaten up by Anko was better than this! "Don't even start on the whole 'you need to do D-rank' crap. Do you know how utterly mind numbing those missions are? Come on, Ojiisan, you know as well as I do that I can take care of myself. Can't we at least try and do a mission that doesn't borderline on illegal immigrant work?"

Sandaime choked slightly at that, while somewhere close by, Anko was coughing loudly, although it sounded more like she was covering up a snicker. The Hokage turned to look at the kunoichi, who had quickly regained control of herself. "You've trained with Harry for the past week, Anko-san. What do you think about Harry-kun taking a mission higher than a D-class?"

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," Anko answered, "I'll have to agree with my deshi on this one," one of her more scary smirks appeared on her face. "If you think about shoving another dumb D-class mission-scroll on us again, I'm afraid I will have to respectfully tell you to shove it where the sun doesn't shine, Hokage-sama."

All of the shinobi at the mission office stared wide-eyed at Harry and Anko as if they had never seen them before, their jaws dropping to the floor. However, Anko paid them no mind. Clapping Harry on the back – causing him to almost lose his balance and he shot her a glare – Anko turned back to Sarutobi. "I think that the brat is ready to take on a more challenging mission. So, I am official requesting that Uchiha start doing C-rank missions. I want him to get the taste of the field and train him outside of the village."

Harry couldn't help but stare at Anko. Had she…just agreed with him? No way! She had never agreed with him before! _I mean, ever since I passed Anko's test, we've argued over pretty much everything when we weren't trying to beat the crap out of each other in training. Sensei must be as frustrated about doing these D-classed missions as I am. _Harry smirked, the expression hidden under his wide collar. _Hell yeah, I'll be able to get out of the D-ranks!_

The Hokage gave Harry a faint smile. "Well, if you think so strongly about it, I think I'll be able to give you a C-classed mission," Sarutobi said, nodding. "After all, with what happened at Hogwarts, I think you'll be able to handle a higher classed mission."

Harry mentally cheered. Anko straightened while a wide grin broadened on her face.

However, not everyone seemed happy about the arrangement.

"But… But…you can't be serious, Mitarashi-san, Hokage-sama!" Iruka blurted. Harry winced. _Dammit, I should have known that Iruka would protest._ Thankfully for Harry, Anko intervened, slamming her foot on the desk and causing Iruka to jump back in surprise.

"Listen, Umino," Anko leaned down, bracing herself against her knee with an arm as she fixed Iruka with her raptors gaze. "I know that you're concerned about the brat's well-being, but Uchiha's my deshi now. His life's in my hands and I think the brat can handle it."

"That's not the point," Iruka shook his head and began a long lecture about the different types of mission rankings. However, Harry already knew this and wasn't about to have Hokage have second thoughts about giving the two of them a C-classed mission.

"Oi, Iruka-sensei!" Harry interrupted loudly, ignoring the lecture altogether. Iruka stumbled to a halt, snapping around to look at Harry. However, Harry cut him off before he could protest. "I'm not a little kid. You already know that I had that mission that practically turned to an S-class (wizarding equivalent anyway) already at the School." Harry threw Iruka a confident smirk and crossed his arms in a relaxed fashion. "I am not the type of person who can just do D-ranks for the rest of my life, you know. And even though it's nice to know you care, I really don't need it. I'm shinobi now – a shinobi of the Uchiha clan and of Konohagakure. I already know the price of being a ninja." He brought up his hand and stared at his palm for a moment. In his mind, the face of the teacher he had killed flashed, before it faded away once more. He clenched it tightly. "I need to see if everything I'm learning, everything I've done so far is paying off, to see how far I've come, that I'm becoming strong enough to protect those important to me." He turned to the Hokage, a fire blazing in his deep green eyes. "Hokage-sama, give me a mission that will truly test my skills."

Iruka looked as though he was going to protest again, but fell silent under Anko's glare, his brow creased together in worry. Anko glanced at Harry, before a smirk settled on her lips. Harry couldn't begin to wonder what the kunoichi was thinking. Sandaime met Harry's eyes for a moment, as if assessing the truth behind his words. Finally, he nodded.

"Well, since you're so determined, I think I may have a C-class mission appropriate…" Sarutobi unrolled one of the mission scrolls, running the mouthpiece of his pipe over the words until he found what he was looking for. "Ah, here we go – a search and recover mission."

"Oooo, an Investigation type mission," Anko said, her grin widening. She rubbed her hands together gleefully. "Just what I was hoping for. Anything's better than watching this brat hissing at snakes all day."

"An Investigation?" Harry parroted. _This sounds a little like the kind of mission the Konoha police used to get – or at least what I remember Fugaku-ojisama doing in the village._

"Indeed," the Hokage said, looking at the confused expression on the Uchiha's face. "The client is Chichiya-dono, the Daimyo of Swamp Country. It seems that Chichiya-dono's best archaeologist has gone missing in Swamp country while looking for an artifact of some kind. The area he was last seen in is rumoured to have bandits in the area. It seems that the artifact in question may have caught the attention of some of these bandits, so it's believed that they may have been involved with the disappearance. Chichiya-dono already has men on the case, but has asked for the back up of a shinobi or two in the investigation. Your job will be to help with the Daimyo's investigation and, if possible, bring the archaeologist back to Chichiya-dono." He gave the two of them a sharp look. "Now, its important that you do not anger the Daimyo. I know that Fire Country and Swamp Country are in good terms with each other, but it wouldn't do well to insult the country's leader."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to do anything stupid. Surprisingly, Ojisama did have manners taught to me. I won't piss of the Daimyo, Ojiisan." He gave the Hokage a reassuring grin, one that Sarutobi returned with a chuckle.

"I wouldn't expect anything less, Harry-kun," Sarutobi smiled. "Now, both of you need to make it to the Country of Swamps and report to the Daimyo within two days. If all goes well, the mission should take about two to three weeks. For any further information on the mission and on the target, consult Chichiya-dono."

"Wakarimashita," Harry nodded, a half-grin, half-smirk on his face, his eyes glittering at the thought of a challenge. It was only due to his pride that kept him from yelling at the top of his lungs and thumping the air in glee – it was already hard enough to stop himself from skipping as he headed towards the door to get ready for his first real mission. He couldn't wait to tell his brothers!

"Oh, and Harry-kun?"

Harry, still pumped by the thought of the C-ranked mission, broke from his thoughts to look back at the Hokage. "Yeah, Hokage-ojii?

Sandaime smiled at the enthusiastic genin, his eyes crinkling pleasantly. "Good luck."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Things were quite normal in the Uchiha household that evening. Well, normal for the Uchiha's and their adopted younger brother, at any rate. Naruto was currently stuffing his face with ramen and some of Harry's home made rice-balls in one hand, while trying his best to read through the martial arts book that Harry had lent him, his eyes glittering every now and then as he would mutter things like 'Sugoi! I gotta try that!' and 'I can't wait to see what Sakura-chan'd think if she saw me use that!' or 'Hah! Kiba'd have a fit if I used that on him!' at odd intervals. Sasuke was sitting at the kitchen table, his chin propped up by one hand as he frowned slightly doing his homework that he had got earlier that day, chewing on the end of his pen as he thought, before writing something on the sheet. Harry was currently collecting the finished dinner dishes to be washed. It was a common sight at this time of day, considering Sasuke had done his turn that morning and Harry still didn't completely trust Naruto with the dishes, especially since the last time he handled dishes three had been dropped and at least two more had been sacrificed in a Plate Frisbee match.

There was, however, one thing that was different that normal.

"Why are you so happy, Aniki?" Sasuke asked in confusion as his older brother practically bounced across the room with a bubbly to-rival-Naruto grin on his face despite the fact that he was currently doing one of the household chores that he practically despised. It was actually starting to freak him out a little bit. "You've been looking like a storm cloud for almost a week. What changed?"

"What changed is that Sandaime-ojii has finally given me a real mission instead of all of that crap he gave me before!" Harry said almost giddily as he continued his happy bouncing.

"Oh cool!" Naruto chirruped, leaning forwards anxiously, desperate to hear more. "What kind of mission did you get? Rescue a princess? Assassination? Kidnap a shipload of Ramen?"

"No, no and hell no," Harry replied, his face twisting into amused horror at Naruto's active imagination. Kidnap a shipload of ramen – honestly! Only Naruto would come up with something like that. He carefully dropped the dishes into the basin as he continued. "Anko-sensei told me I've got to meet her by the main entrance at seven tomorrow and we'll be travelling to meet the Daimyo of Swamp Country. Apparently an associate of his has gone missing and wants a shinobi back up, but not a large group, to help locate the guy."

"That sounds a little like what the Konoha police do in the village," Sasuke muttered thoughtfully as he tapped his pen against his cheek. "So you're going to help out? Will you be alright with that weird sensei on your own for so long?" He exchanged a look with Naruto. "I mean, you always look pretty beat up after training with her…"

"Still, training with her is making me stronger," Harry said, thinking over what he could accomplish only a few weeks ago and what he could do now. "And even if she is a psycho, I don't think she'd kill me or anything. It'd piss of Hokage-ojii too much anyway, and she seems to really respect him in an odd, twisted, Anko-ish way…" Harry shrugged. "Well, either way, Anko-sensei strikes me as someone who'd put her all into a mission – well, if it's above a D-rank anyway. But hell, even the most patient shinobi would have blown their top at those 'missions'." He added, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the mere thought of D-ranked missions

"It was funny when you came back covered in paint though…" Naruto snickered.

Harry shot Naruto a death glare. "Sure, laugh it up, Naruto. Make fun out of your Oniisan when a stupid bint of a fan girl jumped him and made him drop paint everywhere!"

Thankfully for Naruto, Sasuke came to his rescue. "So where is this mission of yours again, Aniki?" he asked quickly. Harry turned back to Sasuke, while Naruto sighed in relief that Harry's 'anger' was diverted. Bad things happened when Harry got angry – like people hanging by their ankles to a tree, or their hair turning colours to rival that of Sakura's being prime examples. Neither had forgotten the prank Harry had played on his potion teacher either…

"Eh? Oh, its in Swamp Country," Harry said, all sunshine and daisies again. Obviously the thought of doing a real mission outweighed any other annoyances at the moment. "We're helping the Daimyo's investigators to find a missing archaeologist. We get the rest of the mission details when we reach the Daimyo's place."

"How long would something like that take?" Sasuke asked, his dark eyes glinting with interest now. Harry was reminded of when they were small and how he and Sasuke used to beg Ita…er…some of the older clan members, on what their missions were like and what they did, almost dreaming of what their own missions would be like in the future. Harry smiled. It was nice to see that no matter what happened, some things never changed.

Pushing the thought out of his mind for the moment, Harry gazed up at the ceiling, running a hand through his hair in thought. "About three weeks I'd say, but that depends on how far the Daimyo's guards have also got on their investigations before Chichiya-dono decided to get ninja back up…"

"Three weeks!" Naruto blurted out. Harry glanced at him with a raised eyebrow and Naruto blushed scarlet, before he covered it up with a 'humph', crossing his arms, his face scrunched into an irritated 'I don't really like this but I'll agree for now' expression. "Three weeks? I guess I can live with that. I mean, you're away loads longer when you got to that Hogsy place."

"Hogwarts," Harry corrected absently, his eyes crinkling fondly at the blonde as he ruffled his hair. "You guys be good for me while I'm away and try not to piss off Iruka-sensei and Hyuuga too much. If you're good, I'll treat you guys to dinner when I get back – maybe I'll even be able to get us tickets to the new Princess Fuin movie – I think it comes out in a few weeks if I read those posters right. How's that sound?"

Both boys brightened at that, especially Naruto – Harry suspected that Naruto had a crush on the actress who played Fuin-hime. The two of them enjoyed watching the first movie when Harry had got it on tape - the action scenes were like a mix of jutsu and magic that blended together almost seamlessly and the story lines were good too, exciting and graphic. The ratings for it were almost as high as those of people who bought Icha-Icha series (and that was saying something, since nearly every adult male including the Hokage read them!) In fact, the movie was so popular, they had made this new sequel and there were rumours that the director was planning many more in the future too if what Harry had read was true.

Still, it wasn't often that they could go out like a family and it had become a special occasion for them. Like if one of them had aced a test, or had brought home a good report card – or if Naruto had managed to avoid making trouble for a few weeks – or managed to cause trouble without being caught out. (Sasuke used to scold him for that one the first few times. Something about being a bad role model or something, until he realised this was just Harry being Harry and he might as well go along with it.) So these types of outings were special to all of them.

"That's so cool!" Naruto grinned happily, throwing his hands behind his head. "I can't wait to see the new movie! I mean, this'll be the first time I've ever gone to the movies! The first Princess Fuin movie was brilliant – it must have looked so cool on the big screen!"

"I guess that's fine," Sasuke said, giving Harry and unreadable look. "That's a promise, right, Aniki."

Harry smiled knowingly. "That's a promise."

"And you don't break promises, do you, Aniki." Sasuke insisted.

Harry couldn't help but smile even more. Harry knew that this was just Sasuke's way of saying that he had to come back to them alive and well without sounding like a worry wart. He gave him one of his best, reassuring smiles and nodded. "Sono tori."

Sasuke nodded and went back to his homework, his dark eyes flickering towards Harry for a moment before closing, a slight smile quirking at his lips. "Good."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Glad you're here, Uchiha. It would've been a shame if you did all that whining about doing a higher classed mission and then ditched."

"Ha, ha, sensei. Very witty," Harry snorted as he turned around to face her from where he had been sitting on the wooden pole in the training area they had staked out by the memorial. He jumped off the pole and shot her a glare. "And for your information, I don't whine."

Anko tilted her head, her eyes sparkling as she placed her hand on her hip, the other had a pack slung over her shoulder, similar to the one that Harry had dumped in front of him. "Suuuuuure you don't Uchiha. You just keep telling yourself that."

Harry gave her a long look before snorting again. "You're an ass, you know that." Anko just grinned at him. She took all the fun out of insulting someone. She just found it funny. "Sadist."

"I prefer to think of myself as having an adverse humour," Anko said cheerfully as she swung her arm around him and steered him towards the main gate. Harry had to tilt his head slightly to avoid his head getting crushed between her arm and her breast. He also averted his eyes to avoid the large gap that was now showing at the opening of her coat. He was well aware that if he just tilted his head that way, he'd see something that would send all the perverts in Konoha (and those not in Konoha) to the hospital from blood loss (and he wasn't sure if that would be from the sight, or from Anko sending said pervert flying. After all, he had been close to begging – shudders – to get this mission. He wasn't about to ruin it all by being carted off to hospital. Anko wasn't one of his fan girls after all – to which he thanked Kami. Not that he stared at the breasts of his fan-girls either. He was usually too busy running.)

Instead, he just huffed slightly, closing his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Which is exactly what a sadist would say, Psycho-sensei."

Anko chuckled, ruffling his hair before she let go of him. Harry yelped and hurried to flatten his hair in vain, glaring at the woman darkly, which served to make the kunoichi laugh all the more. Suddenly, she came to an abrupt halt, causing Harry to almost run into her.

"What's up, Sensei?" Harry grumbled. "You forgot your psycho medication?"

Anko, however, either didn't hear him or chose not to, instead looking towards the gate. "What, is this the chibi patrol or something?"

Harry blinked. "Chibi?" he looked around Anko to see what on earth she was talking about. He blinked when he realised exactly who the 'chibi patrol' was.

There hovering near the gates stood Sasuke and Naruto, who were standing like guards, their eyes scanning the light crowds, all the while arguing slightly under their breaths to each other. Harry's eyes brightened and he roughly shoved Anko out of the way, causing her to yelp indignantly.

"Hey Sasuke, Naruto. You come to see me off?" Harry asked, turning to the two boys with a wiry grin on his face.

Both boys froze, before spinning around to face him, their eyes brightening and they dashed forwards with smiles stretching over their faces.

"Harry!"

"See, I told you that we hadn't missed him. You worry too much, teme."

"Shut it, dobe." Sasuke shot back. However, there wasn't any malice in it.

Anko was looking between the two of them in confusion. "You know these chibi, Midori-me?"

Harry grimaced at the nickname, but that was covered up by an indignant yelp from the two younger boys.

"I'm no chibi!" Naruto growled. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and…" he blinked, then his eyes widened and he jumped back, pointing at her wildly. "Hey, you're that Psycho woman!"

Anko blinked, "Heh, word gets around, doesn't it." She turned to Harry, her brow raised. "What've you been telling them, brat?"

Harry shrugged. "Nothing but the truth."

"Damn, and here I was thinking that I'd hear some more cool things about me to add to my list," Anko sighed. "I'd've loved to see what Ibiki would've said to those stories…"

Harry decided to ignore her. Turning back to his brothers, he smiled once more. "I only said goodbye to you a couple of hours ago. You can't be missing me already?

Sasuke glowered at him. "That's not it," the boy grumbled. "It's just that we wanted to give you something, you know, for your mission."

"Give me something?" Harry parroted.

"Yeah," Naruto chirruped. "Sasuke and me wanted to give you a present, seeing as you wont be back for your birthday and all."

"Um, thanks," Harry said, blushing slightly, "But really, you shouldn't-" However, he was interrupted when both boys pulled out a mass of paper, glue and ribbon and deposited it in Harry's arms, "have…?" Harry finished weakly.

"Come on, Niisan, open it, open it!" Naruto said happily, beaming from ear to ear. Sasuke was looking up at him shyly, before he scrunched his nose up and looked over at Naruto, easily telling him who had done the wrapping (not that he couldn't have guessed.)

Harry glanced at the parcel in his arms. It was rather big, at least as long as his leg to his hip and seemed quite solid. _What on earth did they get me?_ He wondered. _Well, one way to find out I suppose…_

Carefully, Harry unwrapped the mess and almost fell over in shock. He stared. He couldn't help it. There in his arms was a fuuma shuriken, well oiled and closed, ready to be snapped open at a moment's notice. On the handle was the Uchiha symbol engraved. Harry swallowed dryly. He recognised this weapon.

"Sasuke…you shouldn't…I couldn't…wasn't this Ojisama's?" Harry finished weakly.

Sasuke shuffled and looked away. "…Aa. But…it wasn't doing much just sitting on a shelf and rusting," Sasuke said, his voice soft, thick with emotion. "I think Otosan would rather it be used on a mission than gather dust…" Sasuke looked away again. "I want to know that it's helping protect you, than doing nothing, you know…"

Harry blinked away the mist that was forming in his eyes before it could get any further than that - _Shinobi don't cry!_ – and grinned at them. "Guys, I…well…thanks." Drawing himself up, he pulled both of them into a quick hug. "Now, both of you be good while I'm gone, 'kay? Remember what I said about that movie, alright?"

"Yeah! Movie, Movie!" cried Naruto excitedly. "I wanna see a movie!"

"And that means actually getting to class."

Sasuke blinked at the pointed stare Harry was giving to them. "Huh?" He glanced at the sun for a second. His face paled. "Oh crap!"

"We're gonna be late! Move it, move it!"

"Iruka-sensei's gonna kill us!"

Harry chuckled as he watched the boys bolt down the street as if the flames of Hell were on their tails, clutching the fuuma shuriken close to him. Anko stared after them, and almost bemused look on her face.

"Uchiha?"

"Yeah, sensei?"

"…Your family is weird."

Harry burst out laughing. "Like you're one to talk!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"So, what's the plan of action?" Asked Harry as they bounded through the treetops towards their destination. They had been travelling for about half a day so far, but had yet to run into any trouble. Anko had decided that, to be quick, they would travel by the trees. For one, it was much faster and, for another, it was also helping Harry to build up his charka reserves. Harry wasn't about to complain. Hey, if it helped him in a fight, he wasn't going to moan.

"According to the mission scroll that Hokage-sama gave to me," Anko answered, glancing back over her shoulder to Harry, "it should be a day's travel before we reach the border of Swamp Country. There, we should be meeting a guide at the inn near by, who'll lead us to the capital and to Chichiya-dono, which should take about a half of a day."

"Have you ever been to Swamp Country before?" Harry asked interestedly, speeding up slightly to match his sensei's pace. Apart from London and Hogwarts on the outside, Harry had never been out of the village before on a mission. In fact, he had never been to any other part of the Hidden continent other than Fire Country before, so he was intrigued as to what the jonin could tell him about the country they were heading to. After all, as a jonin, she must have seen many places while on duty.

"I've passed through it a few times while heading off on other missions," Anko answered as she bounded onto the branches close by, glancing at him momentarily. "Why'd you wanna know, Midori-me?"

Harry decided to ignore that. "I was just wondering what the place was like."

Anko glanced at him incredulously. "How the hell did you get to graduate early?" she asked in amazement. "Hell, gaki, don't you think 'Swamp Country' gives it away? You know, its, like, swampy-"

"Shut up, Sensei, you know what I mean!" Harry snapped back, glaring at her, although a faint blush tinged his cheeks. "That's obvious! But how many, or is it just one big swamp? Anyway, what are you on about? If all the countries were like that, wouldn't Konoha be in, I dunno, Forest Country, or Tree Country? I mean, we come from Fire Country," he made a show of looking about him. "So where's the fire? Cause I sure as hell can't see it."

Anko paused for a moment, before she snorted. Grinning, she looked over at Harry, her brown eyes sparkling. "Heh, never thought about that before. Maybe ya ain't so hopeless, eh, Uchiha?"

"Glad that you noticed," Harry said dryly.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was almost dusk by the time they reached the border of Swamp Country and Harry could already tell that it was going to be a foggy night, so there was no way that the guide was going to take them anywhere that night. When they had reached the inn, they had approached the publican about the man who was to guide them. Immediately they had been guided to him. The man, named Uruhara Kosuke-san according to the mission scroll, was a small, squat man with a rounded face that would have been classed as cheerful if he didn't look so tired.

"Shinobi-san," Uruhara-san said, bowing low to them. "I'm glad that you could make it. Chichiya-dono will be very happy that you could come to our aid."

"It's an honour." Anko said, bowing in return. "The Hokage has told us that you are to guide us to the capital on the morrow."

"Indeed. A lot of the country is very marshy, some travellers have been swallowed by the mud before. Its quite a ways to get to the capital by transverseing the swamps, but it is much faster to take a boat. I have took the liberty of procuring one. Chichiya-dono has been very worried for the safety of Gotetsu-san. But with this fog, I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the morning."

"Sure thing. We leave six-sharp, Okay, Uruhara-san?" Anko flashed the man (who winced at the time) a grin before indicating to Harry that they were leaving. Harry bowed to Uruhara and followed, heading off to the rooms they would be using for the night.

"Ugh, that man's gonna give me a headache," Anko muttered as they came to their rooms. She turned to Harry. "Alright, Uchiha, rest up, cause we're going to be busy. Remember to get your butt downstairs for six, or I'll leave without you."

"I'm not going to forget, sensei," Harry rolled his eyes and went to his room, muttering as he shut the door. "Kami, you'd think I was that Hatake guy the way she's talking, jeez!"

Despite what he said, it was a long time before he could sleep. Unfortunately, it seemed he was sharing with Uruhara ("What, you think I'm sharing with him? I'm a woman, unless you forgot, Midori-me-chan." - Anko), and for all his fancy words, he snored loader than the Hogwarts Express. For a while, Harry sat by the window, looking out at the mist covered swamp-lands, the moon a blurred sliver up above and couldn't help but feel excited about what was to happen the next day.

This was his first honest to God, no magic involved (unless caused by himself) mission.

And he couldn't wait.

**TBC**

**Japanese translations**

Kunoichi – female ninja

-San – honorific meaning Mr/Mrs/Miss etc

Isha-san – literally 'Mr Doctor'

Sensei – teacher

Shosen Jutsu – Mystic hands jutsu (Taken from Wikipedia site. It's the technique Kabuto uses on Tsunade. I think it's also called Chakra no Miso)

Jyuuken-ryu – gentle fist style

Kekkei Genkai – bloodline limit

Sen'eijashu - Hidden Shadow Snake hands

Aniki – brother

Oniisan/Niisan – older brother

Midori-me – green eyes

-Chan – honorific meaning either 'little' (i.e. when Anko is teasing Harry) or 'dear' (like how Naruto refers to Sakura)

Hai –yes

Iie – no

Ojiisan/ Ojii – grandpa/ gramps/ old man

-Kun – honorific mostly used for boys indicating familiarity or affection. Can also be used as a superior to inferior (i.e. Hokage to Genin)

Deshi – student/ apprentice

-Sama – honorific usually used to someone of I higher rank than oneself. Can be translated as 'honourable' so-and-so

-Dono – honorific more respectful than 'San', usually used for lords. Translates to something like 'Milord' such-and-such-a-body.

Daimyo – a provincial lord (in this case, the lord of swamp country)

Ojisama – honourable uncle

Wakarimashita - understood

Sugoi – cool/ amazing/ wow

Hime - princess

Sono tori - exactly

**Chosha's Notes**

Well, another chapter done. I'm sorry there wasn't too much action in this chapter, but I guess you could call it (dun, dun, duuuuuuuun!) a filler chapter. Still, it introduces us to Swamp Country and out new mission. I had planned on having the 'Swamp-bandit arc' a single chapter mission, but I decided against it. I want Anko and Harry to bond as a teacher and student. Most people who use Anko as a teacher merely depict her as stand-offish. I want Anko to be like a Psycho big sister character. Anyways, the mission's action should be coming soon. Oh, also, thank you Shinobi's Fire for the extra thought to add to this mission. It may prove…useful, for later on in the story, but I don't think they will realise just whats going on with that 'til later. After all, Harry doesn't know about the various gangs and stuff yet. Oh yes, and thank you to everyone who had ideas for missions. I plan to use some of them in the future, so look out for them.

**Preview of the next Uchiha Potter**

Harry: to think they've been searching for weeks for this guy and haven't found anything. You think the bandits killed him?

Anko: no way – not if they're still after whatever he was looking for.

Harry: I wonder why it's so important… Hey, Anko-sensei, we'll have to work together if we're gonna get that guy out of trouble!

Anko: heh! Perhaps your not quite the brat I thought you were! You managed to land a hit on me, so I shouldn't be surprised. Let's see how you do against Yakuza, Midori-me.

Harry: you're on! Next episode: Into the Swamps - The Investigations Begin! Look forwards to it! Those bandits'll regret taking on us!

Anko: and watch out for the second instalment of Chosha Kurenai's Omake theatre – Uzuchiha Gaiden: Dango wars! So keep your eyes peeled, you maggots!

Well then, until next time – Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	12. Chapter 11: Into the Swamps

_**Beat'd by Paradox Of Life ^^**_

**Chosha's Notes**

_**Edit:**__ I've been going over previous chapters with a beta to pull out any mistakes. So, thanks to __**Paradox of Life**__ for Betaing this story –Edited 30__th__ July 2011_

I am so, so, sorry for the late update (again, I might add) but I had about two essays, two presentations and an exam to do, all in the same two weeks too, then I got the deadly writer's block, followed by placements and… Well, lets just say that real life kidnapped me. (Damn you real life!) Anyway, I've finally escaped and got back to the fanfic universe. (Well, before they throw some more essays at me! Sob… Uni's so mean…) well, enough complaining out of me, let's get to the important parts.

Oh, and one thing too, to one of my Anonymous reviewers. Listen, if you don't like the story, fine, but if you're gonna flame me, at least say who you are. Give some courtesy at least. I've already said that if your gonna criticise the story, make them constructive. I won't say it again. Any other anonymous flamers get the finger.

Sorry, but that just pisses me off.

Other than that, thank you to everyone else who reviewed last time. Thank you also the Darkblade the Damned, for giving me a little help with some future plots for both UP and for Demons Within – its in the works by the way, you should see it out soon, Darkblade-san!)

Oh yes, with the Yondaime's name. I know his name is Namikaze Minato, but when I wrote out the first chapter, I didn't. I wrote that before the 'big revelation' was made. I'll be going back to change things later, but I thought you'd prefer me to update first, ne?

This chapter is still a dedication, due to the fact that I haven't finished off the Swamp mission last chapter. I hope that you enjoy my interpretation of the mission. I'm still interested in your ideas for future missions, so please send me your ideas. If I like them, you'll get a chapter (or a mission at least) dedicated to you. Well, anyways, after that abnormally long Chosha's notes, here's what you've all been waiting for!

**Important:** This chapter (or should that be mission?) is dedicated to **Zmanjz** and to **Spellcaster Hikaru** – both of who gave me the ideas for this mission. So, **Zmanjz** and **Spellcaster Hikaru**, Arigato Gozaimasu!

**Disclaimer:** yeah, yeah, we KNOW already! I own zilch of either Harry Potter or of Naruto. (Glares at solicitors) there, happy now?

**Last time on Uchiha Potter:** Harry finally began missions, but is quickly irritated by the D-classed missions and loses his temper to Sandaime. On Anko's recommendation, Sandaime gives Harry and his sensei a C-class mission to swamp country to help find and return their Daimyo's chief archaeologist. Travelling to Swamp country, they are met by Urahara, who is to guide them to the capital, and, from there, their mission…

**Dedicated to Zmanjz and Spellcaster Hikaru**

**Chapter Eleven:**

**Into The Swamps – The Investigation Begins**

The morning was bright as Harry made final preparations, checking and double checking his weapons and food rations for the final leg of the journey. His spare weapons which were not within his thigh or hip pouch, were securely wrapped within spare clothing and bandages, masking the distinctive clink of metal when he moved, exactly in the way that Harry had been taught. All that needed to be prepared was the Fuuma Shuriken that his brothers had given to him before his departure.

He paused, his fingers hovering over the steel of the closed blades. His eyes wandered over the faint scratches of where it had been used in battle before. Harry ran his fingers over the marks, picking it up carefully, his eyes hovering on the mark carved into the handle. The Uchiha fan. He had to wonder what his uncle would have thought to see him using his hand-made weapon now. He idly wondered if Fugaku would have been proud or feel dread that Harry, the biggest prankster of the clan since Uchiha Obito, would probably 'dishonour the weapons nature by using it in useless pranks'. Harry's lips twitched upwards at the thought. Probably the latter, now that he thought about it.

Harry sighed slightly. It had been almost three years since the Uchiha massacre and even the happiest thoughts of his clan still brought with it that sadness. Harry frowned and pushed those thoughts into the back of the cupboard of his mind. There was no way in hell Harry was going to have a break down because of an angsty past. Konoha (not to mention any ninja village) had enough of those. It would be a cold day in hell before that happened.

Harry glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost time to head out. Quickly and carefully, Harry stored the fuuma shuriken, zipping up the opening. Normally, he would have made a harness to strap it onto his back, but he hadn't had the time to make one that would be sturdy enough to take the damp atmosphere. Still, he would be able to gain easy access to it in the position it was in, if he was to need it.

Carefully shouldering his pack, he made his way down the stairs into the lobby to wait for their guide. Anko was already waiting, perched on top of one of the tables swinging her legs absently as she stretched, yawning, causing her coat to shift just a little. Harry wasn't sure if she noticed that the few early risers seated on the nearby tables were currently suffering heavy nosebleeds from the movement.

"Isn't it a little too early to be causing chaos and mass blood loss, Sensei?" Harry asked, leaning against the post, an eyebrow raised.

"Ha?" Anko blinked, looking a little confused as she broke from her yawn. Harry rolled his eyes. Then looked at the other residents pointedly. Anko blinked, following his gaze, then sweat-dropped. All around her were several men, all of whom were on the floor, twitching, blood dripping from their noses.

"Eh heh, heh, riiiiight, sorry, sorry!" Anko laughed, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

Harry sweat-dropped. _She hadn't even realised she was doing it? _"Moron…"

"What was that, Midori-me-chan?" Anko asked suspiciously.

Harry blinked at her innocently, waving a hand in a way that would have been casual, if not for the slightly strained smile. "Who, me?" Harry said, hurriedly, waving it off, "never said a word."

The Jonin gifted Harry with a long, hard look, as if trying to dissect him as she leaned forwards towards him. "Hmm…"

The Genin grimaced slightly at the look and his eyes quickly flicked around to find any and all escape routes. Thankfully, however, it didn't come to that as Anko's penetrating glare was cut short by the arrival of a rather sleepy Uruhara stumbling blearily into the room. His pristine hair and clothes looked a little ruffled.

"Uruhara-san, glad you could finally join us," Anko said dryly, planting her hands on her thighs as she twisted around to the dishevelled newcomer from her perch on the table (behind her, Harry sighed in relief and slumped against the wall. Who knew that the gods actually liked him?) She tutted disdainfully. "It's not very nice to keep a lady waiting. We arranged to meet at six this morning and you have only just crawled out of bed. What kind of noble are you?"

That seemed to wake the man up as he squawked indignantly at the kunoichi's accusations. "W-What? But, Mitarashi-san, it has only just turned six o'clock now!"

"Yeah, and? You're on time if you're five minutes early. You're late if you're on time. Even my baka of a deshi here was on time." Harry felt his eyebrow twitch at that, but decided to say nothing in favour of seeing his sensei take out her 'adverse humour' on someone other than himself. A lovely pay-back for keeping him awake half the night with snores that rivalled that of all the boys in Gryffindor tower back at Hogwarts. "So don't whinge at me U-ru-ha-ra-san." She turned back to Harry, ignoring the shocked guide completely. "Alright, Uchiha, now that his-laziness has finally got his butt out of bed," she ignored the disgruntled "Just wait one minute…!" in favour of continuing, "let's get going." She grinned. "After all, we can't keep Chichiya-dono waiting now can we?"

Harry couldn't help but smother a grin at Uruhara's flabbergasted expression. Fighting a snicker, he saluted her with a roguish smile. "Yes ma'am!"

And the two left the building, packs shouldered and ready to go. Behind them, Uruhara yelping in horror and, flushed pink, scrambled for his own. "O-Oi, matte!" he cried as he swing his pack onto his shoulders and stumbled after them.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The engine of the boat buzzed loudly as it skimmed through the stagnant water, which rippled in their wake, bouncing a little as it sped forwards through the swamp. It was the type of atmosphere that almost demanded silence in everything but the buzz of the boat and the cries of native wildlife. However…

"…Swamp country is mostly made up of grasslands and forests. However, there are many swamps scattered around the area. There are many paths through the swamp areas, but for easy travelling, it is much better to use a boat, especially since Chichiya-dono is eager to meet with you. You'll find many areas of wildlife native only to Swamp country…"

…It seemed as though Uruhara didn't know the meaning of the word 'silence'.

"…To those who are new to the area," Uruhara continued, much to the annoyance of both Harry and Anko, (well, if the looks of 'wanting to stab the guide to death with a blunt kunai' was how Anko showed irritation), "they may find it dangerous indeed. People have been known to go into swamplands and never come out again. However, to those who know the area," even when he wasn't looking, Harry could tell the superior smirk in someone's voice – after all, the Uchiha and Hyuuga invented that expression, "navigating the area is quite easy. Since there are many useful medicinal herbs that grow in the area, the people of Swamp country have made maps so that even outsiders such as yourself could know how to navigate the swamps, otherwise we may not get any trade at all…"

Harry's eyebrow twitched.

This guy… has been talking…

It twitched again.

…_For the past two hours…_

And twitched again.

…_Non-stop…_

"…"

…_Didn't this man know when to shut up?_ Harry thought in absolute despair as he sunk down in his seat propping his head up in a hand, fingers entwined in his hair in an effort not to toss the whole mission to the wind and drown himself in the swamp water.

As much as he enjoyed learning about a new place, this was getting ridiculous!

Obviously, Harry wasn't the only one almost driven to the point of suicide. Anko all but screamed, raking her hands through her hair. "For the love of Yondaime will you shut the hell up you retarded excuse for a noble!"

Uruhara reeled to a stuttered halt. "Excuse me!" Uruhara choked out in absolute shock. Harry guessed he had never been spoken to like that before.

"I do, so shut up!" Anko growled.

"Why I never!" Uruhara huffed, his face red. "I'm only doing my duty as a guide."

"What you doing is making us want to gouge our ears out," Anko said, rolling her eyes. Harry nodded in agreement, more interested in what was going to happen than to really get involved.

"You can't talk to me like that," Uruhara huffed. "I'm of a higher status than you. I could have Chichiya-dono turn your services away. You may be some top ranked Ninja where you're from, but we are the ones who hired you."

"Well, we can turn the boat around and leave you to it if you'd prefer," Anko said slyly, twiddling a finger in her ear as she stretched out on her seat.

"You know what I mean," Uruhara huffed, blushing at being caught out. "I could still have you lynched."

Anko pulled out a kunai and began to play with it in her hand, pressing the tip against her finger to draw a drop of blood to test its sharpness. Uruhara shuddered. "And I could use you to practice this torture technique that Ibiki was showing to me where you peal off the layers of skin one by one," Anko purred, licking the blade with a sadistic grin on her face. "Care to be the guinea pig?"

Uruhara blenched and began stuttering something along the lines of Anko and bloodthirsty.

Harry turned away from the bickering two and began to survey his surroundings, leaning forward a little, careful not to tilt the boat; squinting slightly through the thin haze that seemed to float over the stagnant water, burring the view. Trees were twisted and gnarled, hanging low over the water, while midges fluttered around in swarms in the shade. Harry thought he may have spotted an alligator or something out of the corner of his eye as it slipped into the water, but he wasn't sure if it was the swirling mist playing tricks on him. The air was humid, Harry could feel moisture collecting on his long-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, dots of dew settling in his hair, yet the air was uncomfortably thick and heavy in the swamplands. His grimaced slightly, hoping that the capital wouldn't feel quite so stifling.

Harry blinked slightly and leaned forwards. Was it just him, or was the mist beginning to clear up?

"There it is, up ahead," Uruhara said sulkily, ignoring Anko as much as possible as he began to steer them closer to land. "The capital of Swamp Country – Shoutakushi."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry had to say he was impressed. Shoutakushi was definitely not what Harry had imagined it to be. When he had been first told about Swamp Country, he had had the image of a drab, dreary-looking town covered in swamp-like weeds and thick mist and held afloat the swamp by wooden pillars that looked as though they would crack and break at any minute.

What he wasn't expecting once he had stepped of the boat was to see quite the beautiful city on dry land where the swamps that surrounded it had ended and a well kept place at that. It reminded him of an oasis of sorts in the desert that was swamps. He let out a long low whistle in appreciation.

"Nice, ain't it?" Anko said to her awed genin student with a grin, hands on her hips. She turned back to their so-called guide. "Well, what are you standing around for? We're not going to lead ourselves are we, Uruhara."

The man in question just huffed at her angrily and pushed past, motioning for them to follow with some disdain. Rolling his eyes at his teacher's incessant desire to vex people, Harry followed the guide and the chuckling kunoichi through the Swamp Country's capital. It was quite a busy place, another thing he hadn't really been expecting and it looked as though they had got there on a market day as well, since the streets were covered in stalls selling all kinds of things from rare herbs to clothes, to souvenirs and food. His senses were assaulted by smells and sounds and colours in a way that reminded him of when he had visited Diagon Ally for the first time. However, Uruhara ignore all of these things and began to lead them to the middle of the capital, where a tall building in a very oriental style stood towering above the rest of the city. It was even more impressive than the Hyuuga compound, or even the Uchiha's compound in its hay-day.

Giving another impressed whistle, this time earning himself a glare from Uruhara, which he pointedly ignored, their guide lead them inside. Harry glanced around as soon as they were led inside.

Daimyo Chichiya's mansion, in Harry's opinion, had to be one of the grandest of buildings he had entered on the shinobi continent. It was clean and bright, filled with expensive furnishing and paintings that had to cost over a thousand or more Ryo a pop. It was so well furnished that it was almost bordering on tacky, in Harry's opinion, but then again, even the Uchiha main house wasn't so filled with golds and flaunted riches. They were shinobi after all. It was just impractical. Still, lord would be lords.

As they walked, Uruhara rattled off rules that the shinobi must follow while they were in the Daimyo's castle. Harry decided that if he ever heard Uruhara's voice after this mission had ended he was going to have to strangle the man. Or practice a few of those interesting curses that he had read about on him, or…

"…Don't speak to Chichiya-dono unless you are spoken to and…"

"I know how to act in front of high class people already," Harry grumbled as Uruhara continued to spout off rules on how to act in front of the lord, shoving his hands into his pockets with a huff. "I had to see the Uchiha elders enough times, with Ojisama being the clan leader and all."

"You'd think were we uneducated barbarians," Anko agreed, rolling her eyes.

Harry nodded glumly. "I'm surprised Chichiya-dono hasn't had him executed out of a will to save his ears," Harry snorted. "He makes Naruto on a sugar high look like a shy quiet angel."

Anko grinned. "Maybe he's hoping he'll get lost in the swamps and get eaten by a crocodile?"

Harry smothered the urge to burst out into uncontrollable laughter and schooled his face into an Uchiha-mask when they came to a halt in front of a room and Uruhara snapped around to look at them. He was sure that Anko and himself looked like the perfect picture of well-trained shinobi. Uruhara gave them a long look, but seeing only the forms of Shinobi ready for the job, he turned back around and knocked on the door.

"Enter." A voice said from inside the room.

Uruhara slid open the door and bowed. "Chichiya-dono," he said. "The shinobi from Konohagakure no Sato have arrived."

"Ah!" The voice suddenly sounded pleased. "Bring them through, Uruhara-san."

Uruhara turned to the two shinobi once more. "Chichiya-dono will see you now," he said, although he still glared slightly at them. Harry shrugged and followed Anko inside, Uruhara tailing them. He slid the door shut as Anko knelt before the man whom Harry assumed was the Swamp Daimyo and Harry quickly copied. Both bowed low in a formal manner.

"Welcome to Swamp country," the man said.

Harry glanced up at the man who was to be his employer to get a better look at him through his dark bangs. So, this was Chichiya-dono, Lord of Swamp Country. He sat before the shinobi, leaning on a short armrest. He was quite well built, although it was hidden slightly underneath a deep forest green Kimono topped off by a sleeveless kimono of browns and golds that seemed far more ornate, signifying his lordly status. His ensemble seemed to match his auburn hair flecked with grey. He had a kind, weathered face and his bright, alert hazel eyes, a match that somehow made him look younger that he was in reality. He motioned for them to sit up with his hand and smiled slightly when they did so. When he spoke, his voice was deep and slightly accented. "Shinobi-san, I'm glad that you could come at such short notice."

Anko inclined her head. "Hokage-sama sends his regards, Chichiya-dono."

Chichiya's mouth quirked up slightly at that and waved a hand at Uruhara, who bowed low and left the room, shooting both ninja an irritated glance before, quietly, sliding the door shut behind him. Although Harry's face showed nothing, his mental self whooped and thanked all the deities that would listen that the guy had finally left.

"Forgive Uruhara-san," Chichiya-dono said in the same quiet tone, though the corners of his mouth threatening to flick up into a smile at the by-play. "He can be a bit over-enthusiastic at times, but he means well." He smiled slightly. "It has been a while since I last saw Shinobi from Konohagakure," Chichiya continued. "I was quite happy when my request was answered. Tell me, what are your names?"

"Mitarashi Anko, Chichiya-dono, and this is my apprentice, Uchiha Harry." Harry bowed as hazel eyes came to rest on him.

"Hajimemashite gozaimasu, Chichiya-dono," Harry said politely, his head bowed. From the corner of his eyes he was sure that Anko was giving him a strange look. Probably wondering about how Harry was acting. After all, he'd never really acted polite in front of Anko. Then again, he was probably to busy arguing with her (or trying to stay alive) to care.

"Please, make yourselves at home. You are guests here."

Anko spoke up. "It seems that we are done with the introductions, so allow me to get to the point." She cleared her throat. "Hokage-sama has assigned us to this mission and designated it has a investigation type mission. We heard the basics of the mission from Hokage-sama, but he said that you would give us more details, Chichiya-dono."

_Well, it seemed the pleasantries are over_, Harry thought as he watched, his deep green eyes flickering between his teacher and his now-serious employer. _Looks like Sensei's all business now._

The Daimyo seemed to sense this as well and his face took on a more serious look that made his weather-beaten face look older than before. For a moment he looked out of the window onto the streets below and sighed. At length, he turned back to the shinobi.

"It all started around six months ago," Chichiya said finally. Harry paid close attention so that he could see if there were any clues in the story. "When the Yakuza gang actually turned up for the first time. They call themselves the Numa gang and, as far as I know, have their base situated somewhere in the swamps. It was only small things, such as stealing at first from those who entered the swamp areas to the east of here, but they began to get more and more adventurous about what they did. Of course, this isn't something that I could allow, so I soon got my guards to investigate and capture the bandits so that the swamps would be safer for travelling. Unfortunately, it looks like their base is in the unmapped areas of the swamps and it would be suicidal to try and find their hideout, at least without more information and they seem to know the swamps better than even some of my own men - the bandits are in their element there. If I sent soldiers, the thugs would easily be able to escape before they found them. They're not particularly strong, but they do know the area better. It would be almost impossible to catch them. So I had issued warnings to stay out of that area of the swamp until I was able to deal with it.

"The Numa gang, however, have been growing more and more adventurous and have been acting quite openly in the area recently, especially towards the eastern part of town in the last two or three months."

Harry frowned and glanced at the Lord. Something sounded odd about that. "If these guys operate quite openly, sir, then it should be easy to clear up. Why don't you have the guards look into all the suspicious places and take out the gang members? If they're just roughnecks, it shouldn't be too hard to apprehend them, right?"

Chichiya shook his head negatively and breathed out heavily. If he were anyone else, it would have been a sigh. "I would if I could. However, my men are pretty easy to recognise and these Yakuza would scarper at the sight of them. That's one of the main reasons we asked the Hokage for shinobi assistance. We need someone who could go into territory such as that to scout out for information and not look inconspicuous. I've heard stories of the jutsu that ninja can do, so you wouldn't be distinguishable, unlike my own guard. Plus with your training, you would most likely pick up dangers or vital information that my guards may have missed. They're well trained – granted – but they are not shinobi, after all."

"So what's all this got to do with this archaeologist that Hokage-sama mentioned to us in the mission scroll?" Anko asked with a frown. Harry had to admit she had a point. As bad as the situation sounded for the townsfolk in the eastern part of the city, it didn't have anything to do with their mission yet – at least until they got more information on this Gotetsu guy.

"Well," Chichiya said. "Gotetsu-kun is our leading archaeologist in the city. He has found many of my family's lost heirlooms and has also discovered some of the secret areas in the swamps that have been lost for years. The last job he went on was into that uncharted area of the swamplands, saying something about having found a great treasure. The thing is that this information has leaked out and I'm certain that the bandits overheard about it. Not only does Gotetsu-kun have high standing amongst the lords here, but this treasure that he was excited about must have caused them to want him captured. They have already asked for a ransom for Gotetsu-kun and I'm certain they will also be after the artifact that he was looking for and will most certainly use him to find it and take it for themselves, rather than it being a country's treasure.

"This is where your mission comes in," Chichiya looked from Anko to Harry, both of whom stiffened slightly in anticipation. "In order for this investigation to be successful, I need the two of you to go undercover in the city and find out any information of the gang's hideouts, or meeting places and to find out any information on the whereabouts of Gotetsu-kun. The bandits will more than likely not be as guarded if they don't think that they are being watched by my guards. It is possible that you may find out more information. When you do, I would like you to aid in bringing Gotetsu-kun to safety by whatever means." Chichiya looked between the two of them, before he bowed. "Please lend us your strength. We cannot afford to lose Gotetsu-kun."

Harry would have rolled his eyes if it weren't for the fact that it would be seen as blatant disrespect of the Daimyo and he had already promised Sarutobi that he would behave himself. _Moron,_ he thought, mentally shaking his head._ We wouldn't even __be__ here if we hadn't accepted already._

"Asking for our help doesn't matter, Chichiya-dono," said Anko. Harry was sure she was fighting the urge to say something rather scathing in usual Anko-ish-ness, but it looked like even Anko could resist it occasionally (the mind boggled). "We have already accepted the mission." She crossed her arms. "So, what does this 'Gotetsu-san' look like? It would help to know what our 'target' looks like, if we are to rescue him after all."

"Ah! So you've accepted, then?" If Harry didn't know any better, he'd say that the Daimyo almost glowed with relief and gratitude. "Arigato gozaimasu, Shinobi-san!"

He got up and walked over to a set of draws, rummaging in one for a moment to pull a file out of it. Closing the door to, he handed it to Anko, who took it and flipped it open, Harry leaning in on his knees to get a better look at the man they were trying to find and (hopefully) rescue.

The man wasn't what he had been expecting. Unlike Uruhara, who had a friendly face (one more thing to show you looks were deceiving), Gotetsu had a thin face with a moustache and small goatee, both of which were greying. From his shoulders, he was a slim man, perhaps of a similar build to Snape, or Dumbledore if you squinted a bit. But unlike Uruhara, his deep brown eyes seemed to shine, the type of look someone has when they enjoy their job. Gotetsu obviously enjoyed being an archaeologist, although Harry was sure he probably wasn't feeling that way just now.

Anko folded the file up and tucked it away into her coat. "Okay then – the Mission begins now." She stood up. "Come on, deshi, we've got ourselves an archaeologist to find."

Harry nodded and got up. Both bowing, they left the room, making their way back outside again.

"So, how are we going to go about finding out this information anyway, sensei?" Harry asked as they walked, his hands in his pockets as he walked casually, his body feeling stiff after all that bowing. He grimaced slightly at the thought of it.

"Well, firstly if we split up we can cover more ground," Anko said. "Usually just asking questions about what people have seen can get you a lot of information as long as you're careful about it. Sometimes civilians will see things that they don't think are all that important, but you can gain some clues about it. As Chichiya-dono said, these guys are operating quite openly around here, so there has to be someone who knows their whereabouts, or any meeting grounds they might have within the village themselves. Sometimes just observing the way people act will tell you even more than words will."

"What you mean like the bandits will be all shifty and civilians will avoid them?" Harry hazarded a lazy guess.

Anko turned to him with a grin, ruffling up his already unruly hair. "Exactly Midori-me. You're catching on."

Harry glared. "I'll catch on you if you carry on calling me Midori-me," he growled under his breath, slapping her hand away from his hair with a scowl. Anko just grinned even more. "Ever heard of the men in white coats, because right now they look like some really good people for you to visit."

"Quiet, Uchiha," Anko interrupted him. Harry rolled his eyes.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

After a brief moment of discussion concerning meeting places and the time – which was at the town square in about three hours time – Harry found himself walking through the village without his hitae-ate on, absently looking around the stalls, all the while keeping his eyes and ears peeled for signs of anything suspicious. After an hour of just looking around and asking a few questions, acting like an innocent kid rather than a genin and getting nothing more than 'you should stay away from those guys' type answers rather than anything useful, like hang out places or anything, Harry was really starting to get annoyed. Most of these people seemed to be cowards, flinching at the gang name like the wizarding world would flinch at Voldemort's name and Harry had to roll his eyes. Were Shinobi the only normal people who could say names without flinching? It was stupid.

However, it seemed that Harry's luck was with him for a change. After all, if he hadn't got so fed up with how the search was going and sat down to get himself a drink of something at a small stand and to give his feet a rest from wandering aimlessly, then he never would have heard the passing conversation of the two men that literally screamed 'suspicious, if not in their rough looks, then by what his ears picked up.

"Ya heard that the boss has finally got the old guy to talk about what he was looking for?"

Harry blinked, looking up from where he was drinking out of his water bottle with a faint frown that would have been missed by civilians, his green eyes fixing on the two as they passed by out of the corner of his eyes.

"Shut up, asshole!" The other hissed. "Ya wanna get us caught?"

His eyes lit slightly. 'Bingo.' He thought, putting down his drink and paying the waitress without taking his eyes off where they were in the crowd out of the corner of his eyes before he followed them at a slow pace, making it look as though he was just inspecting the shops and just going for a leisurely walk, making sure to stay far enough behind them that they wouldn't notice. They only looked back once, however, Harry had slipped behind another person so they didn't spot him before they continued.

The two men walked further out of the nicer area of the eastern sector before it began to look a little rougher. Finally, they disappeared into a place that looked more like a brothel than a bar. Wondering if he should try and enter without being seen, keep watch through a window or what, he made his way forwards, his eyes scanning the building to memorise it so that he could tell Anko, just in case this place could be a hang out or something when he was stopped.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you, kid," a voice from behind him startled him out of following the suspicious characters and he glanced around to see a civilian man leaning out from over his rather rundown sushi-bar stand to him. Blinking innocently at the man, he back-peddled to the stand to give him a curious look, wondering if he had finally struck lucky. If not he was going to be very displeased. He was already this close to yelling at the man for interrupting his mission but the fact that he was meant to be undercover stopped him.

"Huh? What do you mean, Ojiisan?" Harry asked, his eyes flickering back to the other place that the man had just entered.

"Hm…you're an out-of-towner?" the man said, looking him over before waving him closer. Harry did so and the man leaned forwards. "Listen, kid, you don't want to go in that place. It's disreputable at best, but lately it's downright dangerous. You get hurt if you went in that place."

"Why's that?" He asked, keeping up with the 'I'm really an innocent kid who knows nothing about this place and just got lost' act. "Is it really that dangerous?"

"Has been since that guy Rokuro took it over," the man said solemnly. "Guy's with those bandits so I'd stay away from that place if I were you."

'Now we're getting somewhere!' Harry thought, mentally rubbing his hands with glee even as he pretended to be only mildly interested. "Really? What's a guy like that doing running a bar then?" He asked, as if shocked by such a thing.

The bar owner sighed grumpily. "Hell if I know. I'm surprised the Daimyo's guards haven't inspected that place yet. If they did they might actually catch those guys, cause they're always hanging out there," he grumbled. "But anyway, you should stay away from there if you know what's good for you, kid."

Harry nodded. Well, at least now he had a lead. All he had to do now was find Anko and see what they can do about getting information from this place as to Gotetsu's whereabouts.

Smiling unassumingly at the bartender, Harry winked. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. Thanks for the warning though."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was much later on in the afternoon by the time the two shinobi managed to hook up with each other again so that they could exchange any information that they had and by that point Harry was starving. Thankfully it seemed that he wasn't the only one, since Anko dragged herself back with a hand over her stomach moaning.

"Can we eat first…?" Harry asked, seeing the starving kunoichi in front of him. He wasn't sure if she wouldn't just attempt to try and eat him if she was that hungry.

Anko looked around for a minute, then brightened as she saw something behind him. "Now that's more like it!" Anko cried happily and grabbed his arm, spinning him around and tugged him towards whatever she had seen "This looks like a good place to stop to eat and sort out our information," Anko said, pointing out a tea house slash snack bar– the type of place Harry was very familiar with, since this type of place always sold dango. Just then, if his pride would have stood for it, he would have kissed her for suggesting it. Of course he was an Uchiha though and they didn't go around kissing their teachers for taking them somewhere they liked – except for Naruto, perhaps, since he was practically family now.

The ducked under the hangings and entered the shop. There was only a few people sitting at the tables: an oldish traveller who looked as though he had come on trade of something or other (medicine, by the look of the pack resting by his feet); a woman and a young child snacking on sweat bean cakes and a three teenagers (two males and a female) sat at another table discussing plans amongst themselves as they drank tea, occasionally chatting to the waiter who was near by about something. Sometimes laughter could be heard.

Most people wouldn't have thought that this would be a good place to discuss plans, but that was why they would do it here, because people didn't expect it, therefore were not looking for it. Look underneath the underneath, as the saying went after all. Instead of two people plotting strategies, they just looked like siblings or family out for lunch. The chatter of the other patrons would cover up what they were saying from prying ears.

As they entered, a free waitress turned to them, smiling pleasantly. "Welcome! A table for two? Please follow me." She led them to a corner table. "May I take your order please?"

Yes! The part Harry had been looking forwards to!

"Five dango please!" Harry cried, only, he wasn't the only one. A second voice mirrored his at the exact same time.

Harry broke off in shock to hear his own words being echoed beside him and shot Anko a look of shock, only to see Anko's eyes just as wide, staring in shock back at him before she could school her features blank again. No way that they had just come out with the same thing. That made no sense, right?

They were interrupted staring at each other when the waitress returned with a stack of five dango on a plate in each hand. She gave them both a smile as she placed the two plates and mugs in front of them. "There you go, Otoko-san, Onna-san. Enjoy."

Anko picked up a stick of dango and began to chew on it, even as she continued to eye Harry even as the waitress walked off and he wished she would look away. It was beginning to make him uncomfortable for him to be stared at by the piercing gaze of his sensei. Finally, she looked away, her eyes going to the dango on Harry's plate (he pulled the plate towards himself just in case the woman tried to steal his own snack – that seamed like something she would do) and back again. Finally- "You…like dango, huh?"

Harry wondered if it were some kind of trick question. "Sure I do," he said slowly, keeping his snack close to him. He swallowed, looking over at hers.

"Huh…small world…" Anko muttered to herself, although she continued to glance at him occasionally. Silently wondering what Anko's problem was, Harry started on his own dango, his sharp eyes keeping watch on what Anko's hands were doing, lest she try to seal his treasure.

Shaking his head slightly – he didn't think he'd ever understand his crazy teacher, Harry decided to actually get back to the subject of the mission – at least that was something he could comfortably talk about without believing that his crazy teacher was going to start steeling his food off of him.

Deciding to get to a subject he was a little more comfortable with with his sensei, Harry changed the subject back to the mission at hand. "Sensei, I managed to get some information about a place where we might be able to get more info on these bandits of ours," he said as he munched on one of the dango, before reaching to get another one.

"Hm?" Anko said, suddenly looking interested. "I heard something about a place called the Gator Cove, but it wasn't much more than a rumour…"

Harry thought back on it, trying to remember what the bar sign had said and remembered the same thing. "Well, it doesn't look like its just a rumour," Harry reported. "I was in town when I heard two suspicious looking guys mention the archaeologist and I followed them. I was going to see what I could find out about the place by some guy stopped me telling me it was too dangerous. Apparently some guy named Rokuro runs the place and he has connections to these bandits."

"Hm…." Anko tapped her cheek with a newly emptied dango stick thoughtfully. "Looks like we got ourselves a lead. Once we've finished up here, we'll go and check this place out. Who knows, we'll probably find ourselves the jackpot."

"Should be fun," Harry agreed with a chuckle and downed another dango ball.

Harry chewed on his dango, surprised at the way it was going. He couldn't remember ever having such a conversation about something like this with her that hadn't erupted into one of their usual Student-teacher scraps. He took another bite of dango. It was just…weird

"You know…" Anko said slowly. Harry glanced over to her to see her eyes twinkling, a slight smile on her face as she looked up at the ceiling of the shop. "I think Hokage-sama was right after all," she looked at him and grinned, her eyes crinkling into upside-down U's. "We really are sort-of alike, ne, Harry."

The young Uchiha blinked in surprise and whipped around to face her, but she had already gone back to her dango, eyes closed and her mouth quirked up into a smile. Feeling a little bit of trepidation, Harry munched on his dango quietly, trying to work out exactly what was wrong with that last talk between Sensei and student. Then it hit him.

He almost choked, wide-eyed as he stared at his food as if it had suddenly turned into a live frog or something, trying not to splutter when it finally hit him what his sensei had actually said.

She had said they were similar. She had…she had…

…Wait… Harry blinked, straightening and he glanced back at Anko, his jaw dropping, his eyes still wide.

…This was the first time his sensei had ever called him by his first name…

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Mmm. This looks like the place that guy of yours was talking about? Let's get inside and find us our man."

Harry glanced over at the place and back again, faltering for a moment. This place didn't look like an inn – it looked more like a whorehouse. And even if he was a ninja, kids his age did not go into whorehouses. It just wasn't practical.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Unless you haven't noticed, sensei," Harry said slowly, as if speaking to a particularly dumb child, "I'm eleven, almost twelve. Which, if you didn't know, is not the age group that goes into a place like that. Hell, I'm not even of drinking age. I thought you said we should gather information while keeping a low profile."

"I never said you had to drink anything, kid," Anko rolled her eyes. "But this is the kind of place we're most likely to get information from. And if what you heard that guy say was right, then we should find at least one of those Yakuza bastards in here."

"Yeah, I know, I know. Yare, yare…" Harry sighed. Still, if he just waltzed into the place looking like he did now, he would gain too much attention to hear anything of importance discretely, if he was not out-right thrown out. Either that or he'd be waking up in a morgue – not something he particularly wanted to experience. Looking out of the alley to make sure no one was spying, Harry quickly moulded his chakra and formed a single seal. "**Henge**!"

-Poof-

When the smoke cleared, Harry was no longer standing there. In his place was a man who could easily be overlooked. He had nothing about him that made him stand out but for the leaf headband. He wore plain civilian clothes and his face seemed travel-worn. It wasn't the paleness that the Uchiha's skin was, but now the same tan colour as any native to Swamp country. Anko whistled.

"Oh, I see…You're making yourself as inconspicuous as possible, so that people will overlook you." She nodded in appreciation. "Nice henge," she grinned mischievously, putting a hand on her hip. "But you really aren't my type." She purred.

Harry rolled his eyes at that. "I was going to go for the imposing effect, but I thought that people might not want to spill about the archaeologist if I come waltzing in looking like Snape or something. This way I might hear something useful."

"Smart, Kid. Also take off your hitae-ate and keep it hidden. For all we know those guys might already know about us trying to find Gotetsu-san. They'll be on the look out for anything that remotely resembles Shinobi." She tugged at the tails of her hitae-ate and it came undone in her hands. Her purplish-bangs fell into her face a little. She looked odd without it. He guessed it was just because he was so used to seeing her with it. Or maybe Anko was just made to be ninja.

"Right."

Quickly he pulled off his hitae-ate and, glancing at it, tucked it away within his clothes. It felt strange not wearing his hitae-ate, but he shook off the feeling and brushed his bangs across his forehead to hide where his scar would have been had he not been under a genjutsu, more out of habit than anything else. Anko didn't comment. She was too busy looking through one of her bags to see, pulling out what looked like a hooded grey trenchcoat in one hand, her other still rummaging in the pack. Seconds later, she threw something at Harry. Surprised, his hand shot out on reflex and caught the object before it hit him in the face. He blinked.

"A straw hat?" he asked. It was nothing special – the same cone-like hat that most travellers wore with straps that tied under the chin. However, he was going inside. Why on earth would he need a hat inside?

The Kunoichi rolled her eyes. "Yes, a straw hat," Anko repeated. "This is part of the plan. If you hear anything that could give us some information on the whereabouts of the gang's hideout, you'll put that on. I'll pull up the hood on this to show I've understood and I'll come out as soon as I'm able. Rendezvous point is the alley back at the dango shop."

"Sou ka…" Harry nodded in understanding. It seemed a good plan to communicate with each other without raising suspicion. "And if you hear something…?"

"Same thing. I pull up the hood on this," she lifted up the greyish coat and tugged at the hood. Oh, so that was why she bought that thing, Harry realised. She pulled off her usual tan coat and threw the hooded trenchcoat over her shoulders. The cloth fluttered slightly as it settled around her. "You put on the hat to answer and head to the rendezvous point." She said as she tucked her tan coat within her pack.

"So, if one of us thinks they don't know any information or if we think they caught on to one of us," Harry added, hesitantly, "then we skip the hat part and head to the doors. That way the other knows something is up."

Anko smiled at him. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought she was proud of him. "Exactly. Now let's get in there and find us a hideout!"

**TBC**

**Anko: **Watch it, Brats. Remember that Omake Chosha told ya'll about? Well, it'll be added to Uchiha Potter shorts. Ya wanna see it, then head over to there.

**Chosha:** you don't have to be so rude about it, Anko…

Japanese translations

Henge – transform

Owari – end

Daimyo – a provincial lord

Hajimemashite gozaimasu – a polite way of saying: 'I am very pleased to meet you for the first time'

Sou ka – I see/ really

Otoko-san – literally 'Mr man'

Onna-san – literally 'Miss Lady'

**Chosha's notes**

OMG, just how long is this mission gonna take! Sigh…oh well. I think It should be finished in one or two more chapters and then we're gonna head into second year I think. I still want to hear mission ideas though. I mean there's still loads to do for Uchiha Potter. If you've got any silly or short missions you want me to write out to, suggest them and I'll write them into Uchiha Potter Shorts if I can't find any space in the main story, so hope is not lost…or something. I know its shorter than what I usually write, but I've been really busy lately and I thought if I took longer you guys would lynch me! So…yeah…hopefully things will have calmed down a bit for me to hurry with the next post.

**Next time on Uchiha Potter:**

**Harry:** So we've finally got a lead on Gotetsu and now me and Anko have got to find out the hiding place, but things aren't going to be easy. Gotetsu, what the hell do you mean you can't leave without the heirloom? Do you want us to get killed? Next time: Chapter twelve: the prisoner of the swamps. Look forward to it!

But til then (hopefully soon next time) Ja ne!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	13. Chapter 12: The Prisoner of the Swamps

**Chosha's Notes:**

_**Edit:**__ I've been going over previous chapters with a beta to pull out any mistakes. So, thanks to __**Paradox of Life**__ for Betaing this story – Editted 26__th__ July 2011_

First off before everyone lynches me, I'm sorry for the lateness of my updates. I'm glad you guys want me to update, but please stop pestering me. I'm a busy girl since I've got two jobs, so I'm usually very busy, but I'm not stopping any of my stories. If I was, I'd post up and say I've discontinued it, and as you can see, I have not. Uchiha Potter is still alive. Also my granddad had a heart attack, so I've been doing some jobs and things for my nan while he's been in hospital. I know it sounds like I'm making excuses but, honestly, it's been a lot of things all jumbled together at once.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed last time. I hope that this chapter lives up to expectations of me. This'll be the last chapter on this mission, and then I'll start on year two (which will remain part of this fic before you ask.) This chapter is still a dedication, due to the fact that I haven't finished off the Swamp mission last chapter. I hope that you enjoy my interpretation of the mission. I'm still interested in your ideas for future missions, so please send me your ideas. If I like them, you'll get a chapter (or a mission at least) dedicated to you.

Ah, also I have one thing to say. People keep bothering both myself and Shadow Crystal Mage about one being a copy of the other with this story and this is far from the truth. Uchiha Potter does have inspiration from Uzumaki Harry and as such similarities occurred without meaning to. However, the similarities to the Uzumaki Harry story differs greatly having started from perhaps the latter parts of Harry's first year and will continue to be different as I have major plans for the future of the story. Shadow Crystal mage is aware of this matter as I have spoken with said author, but please, for both our sakes could you stop asking us? We know.

**Disclaimer:** As always, neither Harry Potter or Naruto belong to me.

**Last time on Uchiha Potter: **Harry and Anko finally get to Swamp country despite both wanting to drown their guide. After learning the details of the disappearance of there target Gotetsu, the two begin to gather information. This information has leaded them to inn that is apparently owned by a man named Rokuro who is rumored to be in league with the bandits. Now Anko and Harry have a plan to get the information on where Gotetsu is being kept hostage by the Numa gang so they can complete their mission.

**Dedicated to Zmanjz and Spellcaster Hikaru**

**Chapter Twelve:**

**The Prisoner of the Swamps**

Tilting the straw hat to cover his henge'd brown eyes, Harry glanced around the inn as he entered, taking in as much as he could without seeming to. It wasn't all that impressive an inn, nothing like the great hall at Hogwarts or anything. Actually the inn they had stayed at on the outskirts of Swamp country had looked nicer. This place was made of dark wood, the atmosphere close and gloomy, in a way that reminded him of the 'Famous' pub that Flitwick had shown to him last year – the Leaky Cauldron – only with a more eastern influence than the western style that the Leaky Cauldron had. Also, it had a tenser atmosphere that that place had, one that easily told you that if a nice guy walked in there, they'd likely get ripped to shreds in an instant.

_Definitely the kind of atmosphere you'd expect from a disreputable place that's meant to be run by a bandit,_ Harry thought to himself, even as the chatter of the rather scrupulous looking people stopped for a moment and their eyes, harsh and cold, suspicious, rounded on him all at once. Harry almost sighed at the feeling of déjà vu from his genin examination and from the Sorting ceremony back in the Wizarding world. What was it with people staring at him? Ok, so maybe this time it wasn't because he was an Uchiha, or because he was Harry Potter either, but still, it grated.

Keeping his eyes from meeting anyone else's dead on in, lest he agitate anyone – after all, he wouldn't get any information if he started a bar-room brawl, now would he? – Harry moved past them towards the bar and as he did so, he could feel the eyes following him for a moment, feel their gazes on the back of his head, before the sensation of being watched lessened as dull sounds of conversation tentatively started again before slowly returning back to the levels they had been before Harry had entered. Finally the feeling of being watched left completely.

_Stage one, get in without getting killed on the spot: completed_, Harry thought wirily to himself as he mentally sighed with relief, pulling off the straw hat so it hung loosely at his back by the strings that were still loosely around his neck and he sat down on one of the tall bar stools that was close to a plant that looked as though it could use some watering, Harry looking at the sickly looking yellow leaves among pale green and the wilting tilt to it and turned in his seat to look at the bar, only to suddenly come face to face with a seedy looking man with narrow black eyes and Harry had to physically stop himself from hitting the roof in surprise, or making a sound that would not only be un-dignifying, but it may also tip the other guys off in here that he wasn't meant to be there. Still, it took all his pride and practice as an Uchiha not to yell in shock and fall off the stool. Even so, his heart was pounding a mile a minute.

"Can I help you?" the man grunted, shifting back so he could finish clearing off the glass with the rag in his hands, although the man's dark eyes surveyed Harry coolly.

_I bet this guy is that Rokuro that the old man at the stall was talking about,_ Harry thought to himself as his heart slowed to more normal levels again and he coughed to cover the slip in composure he may or may not have shown from the man's sudden appearance. Quickly he drew on the best 'cold-ass bastard' routine from the Uchiha's, mixing it with a bit of Malfoy arrogance (Not that he would ever in a million years ever tell that guy his stupid attitude had actually helped him in ever. Not even under torture) and tilted his head up in a haughty manner. "What have you got?" he said, voice in a faint sneer.

It looked like Rokuro was well-used to this attitude from the annoyed huff, showing that he had been right to put on such an act and went to a shelf. Before Harry could say anything there was a bottle of Sake on the table in front of him and a sake cup and the guy was telling him the price.

Inwardly Harry swore. He couldn't drink that! There were many many reasons why he couldn't drink that. For one he was very underage. Ok, so he was almost twelve now (or would be in a few days) but it was classed as underage until you turned 20 to drink in the hidden countries, for another thing he was on a mission and needed a clear head if he was to complete it and live to tell the tale. Also looking at the amount of dust on the bottle Harry was willing to bet the Alcohol content on that thing had to have tripled in the time it was left to ferment.

Which, thus, left him in a pickle as he still needed to keep his cover.

He hoped this would work…

Swallowing back his unease – not that he let any of this show on his henge form anyway – Harry paid for it and poured some while the guy was watching, pretending to drink it by lifting it to his lips but keeping his mouth shut tightly so that it didn't go past his lips. The smell of the alcohol was enough to really put him off. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if you could get drunk just from the smell of the thing, he thought to himself dryly. As soon as Rokuro lost interest in him and went to serve someone else (Or anyone else had lost interest in him for that matter) Harry dumped the contents into the sickly looking plant – he wondered if the reason it was sickly was because so many people had done this instead of drinking it – hiding that he had done it at all with the calm, arrogant look he had supported for his henge's 'character'.

Ten minutes later, Harry had yet to hear anything of interest and he was beginning to wonder if the information he had gotten from his contact had actually been credible and he would have sighed if it wouldn't bring attention to himself. This was getting nowhere. And Anko seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth as well. He had no idea where she had gotten to. He recalled that they had agreed to go in separately so they wouldn't appear to be together and draw attention to themselves, or make themselves suspicious.

**-Flashback-**

"_Ok, lets hurry up and get this information then," Harry said, eying the building as he slapped on the straw hat. Gotetsu had already been missing several days, so who knew what kind of situation the man was in. He had just started off towards the bar, only to yelp when he was hefted back to Anko by a hand to the collar._

"_Hold on there Hotshot," Anko said with a faint smirk at the glare Harry was levelling at Anko as he rubbed his poor abused neck, bristling. Dammit, he wasn't a fish on a hook! _

"_What? If we wait for too long, we might miss the information," Harry pointed out with a frown. "The Daimyo wont be too pleased if this guy were looking for is dead because we missed the info."_

"_True, but that's not why I'm telling you to wait Midori-me," Anko said, smacking Harry lightly on the back of the head so that the hat fell over his eyes. Harry growled, glaring from under the hat with his shoulders hunched against the hit for a moment before he shoved the hat back in place again, still levelling her with a dark look. Anko ignored the glare completely as if it was water washing over a rock and continued whether the young Uchiha was listening or not. "Basically, Brat, you'll be going in first on your own."_

"_Wait, wha-?"_

"_Listen. If two people you didn't recognise suddenly showed up in Konoha and you had a secret and they left after you mentioned it to someone, what would you think?"_

"_I'd think it was…" He trailed off as he realised the obvious answer to the question. It would look very suspicious to him if someone did that and it would certainly draw attention to themselves. "…Oh…" He finished lamely. "I see what you mean. So we go in separately so it doesn't look like we know each other and so it's just a coincidence if we leave at similar times?" He mused out loud._

"_Exactly. You catch on quick, Midori-me," Anko grinned, flicking the brim of Harry's hat up again. Harry rolled his eyes at her behaviour as he straightened it out again, mentally going over what was about to happen in his head._

**-End Flashback-**

However, so far since he had entered the bar, he hadn't seen hide nor hair of-

Suddenly the bar had gone quiet again, breaking Harry out of his thoughts and distractedly he glanced around to see who was the cause of the sudden silence and almost smacked his head on the table.

_Speak of the devil and she will come…_ Harry thought to himself dryly, turning back to his cup – not that he had been drinking any of the stuff - as Anko pulled down her hood and was drawing lecherous whistles from some of the men in the room. She, however, walked like a predator who was queen of the place – no difference there then. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that many were eyeing her up, especially since her outfit left very little to the imagination after all. He managed not to laugh too much when she gave said unfortunate men in return her psycho 'look me up like that and I'll give you a sight – before I blind you by driving a knife into your eyes' look in return.

It really wasn't all that surprising that the men quickly whipped around again sweating buckets. Bandits they might be, but stupid they were not, it would seem. Low-lives or not, Harry thought to himself while he hid a grin behind the empty sake cup (he had tipped the Sake that was in it into the poor half-wilted plant next to him) they definitely had a good sense of self preservation.

Meanwhile, Anko, good as her word made no hint of showing that she knew Harry was in the room at all as she sidled up to the bar as conversation picked up again now that the initial show of the entrance of the purple-haired woman entering had worn off. Like him, she had got a drink from the bar and was now using her feminine looks to get into conversations with some of the bandits. Probably using her 'feminine whiles' to get them to disclose something on the subject to her. To be honest, Harry didn't envy her one bit with the men that she had attracted. He was infinitely glad that he was a male.

After another half hour or so, Harry was beginning to think the lead he had originally had was probably nothing more than a dead end. He had heard nothing to do with Gotetsu, or any plans what so ever. He had learned nothing useful, in fact, except five ways to please a concubine (By this point Harry had had to think of something else desperately lest he have flashbacks of his more…obsessed fangirls that would stalk to the point of being scary – seriously, they looked like they wanted to mug you! He was just really glad that they had not spent time around guys like these – or were old enough to be able to anyway – to get tips from these guys, otherwise the trauma he would have experienced would have left him rocking in a corner a long time ago) And what one guy said to his wife that he wasn't completely faithful to, he was almost ready to actually get whatever he hadn't thrown away of that Sake and get himself intoxicated to the point that he wouldn't have to listen any longer, mission or no mission. It was either that or stab his ears.

"So, that old guy finally spilled anything yet?"

_Hello, what do we have here?_ Harry thought to himself, ears perking at the sentence, although he didn't look like he was doing anything other than nursing the sake cup. There was only one 'old guy' that he knew of that might have anything worth spilling to a bunch of bandits and that was their target, Gotetsu-san. The Daimyo, after all, had said that Gotetsu had information on some long lost family heirloom or something. No doubt that was something very valuable as well, not only from the money demanded for the exchange for Gotetsu's safe return, but also from whatever this heirloom actually was. Making it look like he was busy drinking, Harry began to hone in on this conversation.

"Don't talk so loudly about it you moron," a second bandit hissed. He was wearing a thick jacket that looked like it was for camouflage purposes discounting the rather gaudy ornate buttons on the front. Thus in his mind, for now, Harry dubbed him as 'Jacket', obviously unhappy with 'Bald', as Harry dubbed the first man who had spoken, due to the fact the man's head didn't have even a slight bit of hair on it, and was as sooth and shiny as a bowling ball.

"Meh, what's anyone gonna do about it?" Bald waved it off with a snort. "The boss wouldn't stand for it. Speaking of the boss – I heard he's coming to the base to question the old guy himself."

"That's what I heard," Jacket agreed as he lit a cigarette and clenched it in his teeth as he searched through the pockets of his gaudy coat for a box of matches, found it after a minute and struck one, lighting the stick and blowing a plume of smoke into the air. Harry had to stop himself from wrinkling his nose against the charcoal smell that stung at his sensitive nose. "Called us in too. Looks like he seems to think the big brass called in some ninja or somethin', but I bet its just rumours so that we'll give up the old man. They probably don't have the balls to go through with it. You know what those damned Daimyo's dogs are like."

_News travels fast…_ Harry thought to himself, mentally wincing. Not that he should be surprised at how fast news could travel considering his experiences in the wizarding world and since he came from a ninja village, so he guessed he shouldn't be surprised the news would travel so fast in an underground organisation like this either. _Still, it looks like we've got some luck still, considering they seem to think its nothing but rumours that the guards of the Daimyo made up, to scare them into giving Gotetsu-san back. Still, I'll have to tell Anko-sensei that, just in case. _

Pulling back to reality, Harry continued to listen to the conversation.

"Either way," Jacket continued, "I've got to go to the base myself, otherwise I'll get in deep shit too." He said, getting up. "Just remember to keep your big trap shut about it all, otherwise you'll be in more shit than the old man," he added. "You know the boss doesn't tolerate failures." With that he turned to leave and Harry knew this would be his chance. If this guy was going to the base, he needed to see where it was he was going. That way the man would be leading them right to their hide out – which was something not even the guards had accomplished – and they could go from there. Standing up himself, he donned the hat so that Anko could see it and turned to go, leaving the bar and started in the opposite direction of the man until he had turned the corner. With that he dropped the genjutsu and looked around to see where Jacket was going and his eyes narrowed faintly. Making sure not to be seen, Harry leapt up lightly onto the roof and keeping himself out of sight of Jacket, followed him silently from the rooftops.

Thankfully, it seemed that no matter how good the bandit, he didn't seem all that observant as Harry followed him. So far, he made sure not to get too close as he followed. Harry himself had changed his eyes to Sharingan for the moment, so that he would be able to keep watch on where he was going and remember the details exactly. After all, he didn't want to end up lost in the swamps and made food for the crocodiles after all. As much as he would prefer not to use it, Sharingan was as much a tool as his shuriken or his kunai. And if it helped, then he'd use it.

Jacket left the town, the houses becoming fewer and fewer as he sneaked towards the swamps, Harry making sure to use every tall patch of grass or tree to keep himself hidden, making sure to mark the others footsteps so that he wouldn't accidentally walk into a swampy area and get sucked into the mud never to be seen again. Eventually, as they got into the hot swamps with it's stifling misty air and trees that hung over covered in swamp weed, Harry could finally make out what looked like the hideout that indeed, fitted his expectations. It looked like a run-down ship or building of some kind that was being held up from the swampy mud with pillars that rose up from the murky water's surface. Harry wouldn't be surprised if the wood and metal that made up the exterior were rotten, but he made no comment as he pressed his back against one of the trees, his red eyes watching carefully as Jacket went up to two men by the ramp that lead inside. He said something to them, before going in.

Harry waited a moment, observing, before he himself shot back the way he had come. Now this was a lead that Anko would definitely approve of.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"So you seriously managed to find this place?" Anko asked him once Harry had returned to their meeting place to find a pissed off Anko, and once the Uchiha himself had managed to recover from being hit over the head by said Jonin who was annoyed that he had taken off on his own without waiting for her just in case something had happed. Now they were in their meeting place, Harry sitting in front of Anko and wincing slightly as he rubbed the lump that had grown on his head where the kunoichi had hit him.

"I actually manage to find us a lead, not to mention actually help you to find the hideout that Gotetsu-san is being held captive in and you hit me?" Harry complained as he touched the bump tentatively again and winced slightly as the lump twinged under his fingers. "Where's the justice in that?"

"Don't be such a baby, Uchiha," Anko said, obviously not bothered that she could have given her student a concussion. Or brain damage. Harry snorted. Seriously Anko probably wouldn't have cared if she had burned down an entire village. Grimacing, Harry rubbed his head with a sigh. "Anyway," Anko continued, "even though you blatantly disrespected my orders, you did find the guy's hideout, so just be glad you only got a light tap on the head."

She smiled that overly large grin that was too wide to be fully sane and patted him lightly on top of the head, ruffling his hair. Harry just scowled. Sometimes that woman could be just so damned condescending.

"If that was a light tap I'd hate to see you actually try to beat someone's head in," Harry muttered, slapping her hand away and trying to neaten his unruly hair somewhat again, but paused when he saw the sadistic glint in Anko's eye. "On second thoughts, forget I said anything," Harry said quickly. Anko pouted. "Anyway Sensei, let's just get over to the hideout, rescue our charge and get this mission over with."

"For once, I actually agree with you. If this doesn't get interesting soon, I think I'll end up being bored to death," Anko admitted, patting Harry on the shoulder before darting off in the direction Harry had told her. Sighing and giving a slight shrug, Harry darted off after her.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It wasn't long before Harry, with Anko finally allowing him to lead since he was the only one who was actually aware of where the place actually was, arrived just outside the hideout, crouching within the gnarled branches of the trees, peering through the limp leaves down below at the building. Near the entrance were two rough looking bandits who appeared to be acting as some kinds of guards or something, although they looked rather bored. Still, they did need to get in, hopefully without making too much noise. It wouldn't do to have the entire Yakuza group down on their heads before they had even got Gotetsu out of the building.

"So, any ideas?" Harry asked.

"Well, we need to get past those guys for starters," Anko said, tapping a finger to her cheek with a sigh. "As much as I would love to just beat the crap out of them we'd get swamped by the Yakuza, so that wont do."

"Is there a way that maybe we could at least make sure that Gotetsu-san's actually in there first?" Harry asked in a whisper so the guards wouldn't hear. "I mean it'd be awful to just go in there only to find that the guy is dead, or not even in there.

"Hmm….good point, Midori-me," Anko said grudgingly, biting down on her thumb thoughtfully, then blinked. "Ah, I have an idea. Try not to squeak, kid," she added to Harry, who was about to protest when she bit on her thumb harder to draw blood and made Hand Seals. A poof of smoke later and Harry blinked.

A snake. About the length of his arm in length and with the thickness of two fingers, the colour of browns and blacks, the reptile looked up at them, its tongue flicking out. "What do you want?" it hissed huffily.

Harry blinked. After all those snake-related missions, Harry had started to get used to the hissed sound of snake language, but this time his ears didn't quite pick up anything of the sort. Also, Anko was talking back to it and Harry came to the sudden realisation that the snake was talking. Not in snake language, but honest to goodness talking human language! Harry came to the realisation his jaw was hanging open and quickly rectified it with a click as his mouth closed again. He was an Uchiha. Uchiha's do not gape like idiots.

"I want you to go into that building through the vents," Anko was saying to the snake as all of this was happening. She reached into her coat and pulled out the picture of Gotetsu that they had been given in the file and held it out for the serpent to be able to see. "Without being seen, I want you to check through the building for a man that looks like this."

The snake veered up slightly, it's body wavering a little as it kept itself erect, it's tongue flecking out every so often as it studied the picture with it's beady black eyes before it bobbed it's head. "Fine, fine, but I better get a big juicy mouse out of this," it grumbled before slithering off down the tree in the direction of the hideout. Harry narrowed his eyes, watching it travel through the water and through the grass, the two bandits not even realising it was there. Then again, Harry thought logically as it reached a vent and slithered inside, perhaps the guards were used to reptilian creatures wandering around in the swamps that they had set up headquarters?

It wasn't long later, although it did feel like longer than it actually was to Harry, but of course they were staying still and hidden so as not to be seen by the guards, when Harry heard the tell-tail hissed murmerings that he immediately came to know as that of a snake, slithered up to them and both teacher and student knelt down to see what the summon had to say.

"So, what do you have for us?" Anko asked, almost eagerly. No wonder, Anko was a female Naruto – the wait had probably been killing her.

"You humans all look the same," the Snake complained irritably in human tongue, highly annoyed by the so-called fact. Harry sweat-dropped a moment at that. Still, he supposed he understood. To Harry, a lot of different snakes of the same species looked the same to him so Harry assumed it must be the same by the serpents point of view. "But there was an old looking human that was locked up towards the back." It added a little more helpfully. "Now, can I go now?"

"Do you think that's our guy?" Harry asked in a low voice so the 'guards' at the entrance couldn't hear as the snake poofed away finally, glancing at Anko, who was giving him that odd not-understanding look again and Harry quickly noted he must have been talking in snake language. He always found it more difficult to speak normally around snakes. "Gomen," he grunted before repeating the question in human language once more.

"Sounds like it," Anko said, soon recovering from Harry's slip. Harry assumed she must have gotten used to it by now, since both of them attacked with snakes and this wasn't the first time. "No other old guys went missing or were in any of the descriptions of the Numa bandits. At least now we know the guy hasn't kicked the bucket or something, so now we need to get inside. Way I see it, we wont be able to fit into the vents. It was ok for the summon, but we'd get stuck. So," she grinned. "How about we play Catch the Thief?"

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes, but lost. Only Anko would reduce an important mission into an academy play ground game. "Sure. Let me guess. We're going to creep through the branches onto the roof and get in through the windows there, thus getting inside without making a sound?"

"You catch on quick," Anko said. Harry wasn't sure if he was losing his mind, but he almost thought he heard pride in the other woman's voice and when she turned to get another look at the scene, he put his index finger in his ear and rubbed it a little, wondering if he had misheard or something. However, when she turned back to look at him, Harry whipped his finger away again. "Right, so here's the plan. We go down there, knock out the guards, hide them, Henge into the guards and wait for the guard change. Once that happens, we're in. Then it's a quick in, get the old man and get out. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, got it," Harry said. What was there not to get? Even an academy student could follow those instructions.

"Good," Anko grinned. "Then let's get going, squirt."

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Anko was already leaping away. Hiding a growl, because Uchiha do not make animal sounds (talking snake language didn't count) and he darted after her.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was ridiculously easy to get past bandits guarding the door it wasn't even humorous to the Uchiha. Not only had the Guards obviously been bored and not expecting anyone to show up, they weren't exactly ninja trained. Hell, even an academy student could have taken them out. Both guards were not only bored and lazy, but they obviously didn't expect anyone to get to the place itself and they didn't even bother to look up. It was almost insulting. All they had to do was climb through the branches of the overgrown wild trees that surrounded the area, using chakra to stick on the branches to avoid slipping. Carefully as they could they slipped down the branches, lightly landing on the roof of the building without making too much sound and both ducked out of the way into the shadows the trees cast on the roof when one guy looked around after a very faint sound. Still that was all and Harry heard the guy muttering something about some stupid swamp reptile making him jumpy.

Harry sighed.

Resisting the urge to start complain that these guys were ridiculously stupid, he swallowed back his comments as they slipped through a window into what looked like some kind of store room. It was quiet, and Harry winced slightly that if you stepped on a floorboard wrong it would creak, but thankfully there must not have been anyone in the corridor outside of the room to have heard the slip up. Apart from a sharp look from Anko, it hadn't resulted in anything.

Slowly, they made their way to the door and pressed themselves against the wall either side of the door as they heard footsteps coming from the other side. Harry pressed a hand over his mouth and nose to avoid making any sound from his breathing as the footsteps drew closer. Inwardly he could feel his heart thumping faintly. Was it their turn to have become a little too complacent?

As the footsteps came closer, Harry could pick up what they were saying through the sound of his pulse in his ears.

"So was there any changes do you think?" a voice floated over through the door.

"Nah, nothin'," another replied.

"See?" grumbled the first, probably to his companion, or companions, Harry wasn't sure "I told the okashira that we don't need no guards. No Daimyou's guards even know where this damned place is, yo."

"What ya gonna do," Said a new voice – obviously the one the first had complained to, "Complain to the okashira? Ya know what he's like, he'd cut ya throat and feed ya to the crocs if ya tried to tell him otherwise."

"Well, he is the boss," the second added to the first who was grumbling inaudibly.

"See, even Ryukyu agrees," the third sniffed.

"Ugh…" The first one scoffed as the voices and footsteps began to get quieter. "Dunna remind me…"

Finally, the voices began to fade away and Harry let go of his mouth, finally able to breath properly once more. "This seems a little too easy," Harry murmured to Anko. "I mean, don't you think they should be a little less blasé about all of this if the leader here doesn't want Gotetsu saved?"

"No way to know," Anko frowned. She almost looked disappointed they hadn't been caught just so she could get some action. Harry hoped she wouldn't purposely get them in any trouble.

"Think the coast's clear now?"

"Seems to be," Anko agreed. "Keep your guard up, Midori-me."

"Hai," Harry nodded before quietly opening the door, looking both ways to make sure they were not being watched, then motioned to Anko. With that, the two quickly darted off in the direction that the snake-summon had mentioned.

Eventually, they came to the last room that the snake had spoken of, but just as they were about to turn the corner to it they froze, hearing voices close by and quickly the two of them pressed themselves against the wall, listening intently. Although they couldn't quite hear the words, it sounded as though there could be two guards at the door. Mentally cursing, Harry shot Anko a look to ask what they should do now. It wouldn't do to get this far and be caught after all. His sensei, however, just gave him a faint smirk and a wink before darting off quickly. Harry winced when he heard the sound of bone smacking together and looked around the wall to see that Anko had rammed the two guard's heads together and they had now fallen unconscious in Anko's arms.

"They're hardly any fun," she complained as she carefully leaned them against the wall so they appeared to be sleeping.

"Sensei, is this really the time?" Harry grumbled, although part of him had to agree somewhat. "Anyway, let get the old man and get out. Then we can complain," he added, heading to the door and tried to open it. However, it was locked. Not that he was that surprised. He really didn't want to go looking for the keys though, be it on one of the unconscious guard's person or someone elses, so he instead drew his wand, ignoring Anko as she gave him a questioning look.

"Alohamora," he murmured.

A click from the lock told him the lock had indeed been opened. Carefully, he opened the door-

Only to have to duck when someone inside threw what looked like a large vase right where his head had just been. Standing again, he looked around at the man who threw it. He immediately recognised him from the picture in the file that the Daimyou had given to them, although he seemed a little thinner now and his expression somewhat tight and pinched. Not that he'd blame him if he'd been locked up for so long, but still.

"What the hell, Ojii," he growled. "We were just trying to get you out. How're you going to get out if you knock out the people helping you?" he hissed, almost reverting to the snake language, but held himself back.

The man had looked like he was just about to grab another ornament, only to pause, blinking at them in shock. "Wait, you aren't Numa Yakuza…"

Harry resisted the urge to say 'well duh', and instead nodded, "Exactly."

"We're Konoha Ninja," Anko assured. "If the hitae-ate weren't, like, a dead giveaway," she added. "Your Daimyo obviously decided that he wasn't going to let you die here and hired us to get you out."

"So where's the army?" Gotetsu asked, looking around as if expecting a bunch of Guards to be with them.

Harry and Anko looked at each other for a moment, then glanced back at Gotetsu. "Uh…we _are_ the army."

"Say wha-?" the man started. "Oh, great, that's just great, obviously I'm not that important to the Daimyo then..." The man looked positively put out and close to tears.

"Fine then, if you don't want us here we'll just turn around and leave..." Harry growled, making to head back out the way they had come. As much patience as he had, this attitude of the Swamp people was really, _really_ beginning to irritate him. It was so demoralizing, being underestimated time and time again. First by the guide then by the guy they were supposed to be saving! Harry had a good mind to knock some sense into these people, literally. However, Anko grabbed his shoulder to stop him from just walking off, just as Gotetsu suddenly cried, "No no no, please, don't go!" he punctured this by grabbing onto Harry's arm so tightly he thought that his fingers would turn blue. "I...I do need your help." He said finally, somewhat sheepishly and looked properly scolded. When Harry stopped trying to leave, Gotetsu finally let go, allowing Harry to scowl at him as he attempted to get the blood flowing in his arm again.

"Well then, now we've got that sorted out," Anko said, almost sounding cheerful, "Let's get going-"

"But I can't leave yet either," Gotetsu explained. "I came out here to find an atrifact. But when I found it I got caught by these bandits. I need to get the artifact back."

"Are you crazy?" Harry blurted out. "If we go running through this place we might end up all getting caught," he hissed.

Anko heaved a great sigh as if to say 'oh for goodness sake', rubbing her temples and, in Harry's eyes, looking ready to smack the man stupid. "Is it _really_ that important?" Anko said tartly, raising an eyebrow. "More important than, say, your life, perhaps?"

"Look, it is really important to the Daimyo's family," Gotetsu said. "And the Numa Yakuza'd take full advantage of it. Please," he begged. "If you guys help me out, I'll pay the extra for the added part to the mission," he added, perhaps hoping to pacify the obviously irritated ninja.

Harry and Anko shared a long glance for a moment, before Harry sighed. It was obvious they were going to get roped into this. "Well if you out it that way... "Anko said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, "I guess there's no helping it. We'll have to help recover this missing artifact of yours...even if it wasn't in the job description." She prodded Gotetsu's chest, giving him an almost evil look. "We'll talk about payment later," she purred with one of her deadly smirks.

Harry shivered, suddenly feeling sorry for the guy. From the look on Anko's face he was sure she was going to bleed the poor man dry for this. Still, it looked like they were in for the long haul now, so he guessed he should suck it up and hurry up and do the mission so he could actually get home at some point that century.

Still, it seemed that Gotetsu hadn't quite worked out that they were still in danger from being caught by the Yakuza and cried happily. "Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you-" Harry suddenly clapped his hand over the man's mouth.

"Are you trying to get us caught?" he hissed, wondering just how stupid this guy was. Even Hermione and Ron were never this noisy when they were trying to sneak around through Hogwarts. Maybe all adults were either crazy or stupid, he thought to himself. "Keep your voice down."

Gotetsu, wide eyed, with Harry's hand still over his mouth, the man nodded and Harry almost sighed in relief.

"Just be quiet." Anko instructed, putting her hands on her hips. "And make sure to do what we tell you if you wanna get out of here in one piece. Okay?" she added almost sweetly, patting the man condescendingly on the head as he nodded again and Harry removed his hand. "Now, let's actually hurry up and get this done so we can get paid and go home," she said tartly. "Where is this artifact anyway?"

"I'm not overly sure," Gotetsu admitted. "I do know that they said the leader of this place'd want to see it. I bet after they finished with it they'd put it in a store room near the middle of the building for extra security." He added.

"Huh," Anko said with a frown. "Well, this is something a genin shouldn't be dealing with yet," she admitted then turned to Harry. "Ok, you get the old man-" Anko started, ignoring the cry of 'Old?' from Gotetsu and an almost surprised look from Harry. After all, Anko never usually cared about how much trouble he got into. Normally she had no qualms about bouncing him around the Forest of Death like a football. Obviously she didn't want to get her pay docked or something he thought, mentally rolling his eyes. "-And take him back out of this place into the forest area and I'll meet you there once I get the artifact. Of course it'll be helpful to know what it actually looks like," she added to Gotetsu, who flushed.

"Oh, right…" He said, rubbing the back of his head, making Harry lose the battle on not rolling his eyes.

As Gotetsu quickly gave Anko a description, Harry made sure to check that the guards hadn't woken up yet. He didn't want them to raise the alarm when Harry was trying to get the old man out. While he knew he was a pretty good fighter, he wasn't arrogant enough to think that he could beat an entire band of bandits on his own while protecting Gotetsu. Seriously, the mere thought was suicide.

Finally, once he had finished the description, Anko nodded. "Ok, make sure you don't screw up then, Gaki," Anko said before vanishing down the corridor.

"Gee, thanks sensei," Harry said sarcastically, trying to ignore the look of sudden horror on Gotetsu's face. As if he needed to deal with a hysterical old man as well as trying to get him out. "Anyway come on, old man," Harry said, grabbing Gotetsu's sleeve and dragging him after him, ignoring Gotetsu's protests other than to add with a hiss, "And shut up unless you want us caught."

Thankfully, Gotetsu took the hint and fell silent.

Getting back outside was pretty easy. Going back the way they had come, it seemed that there weren't any other Yakuza at the moment. Harry had to wonder if Anko had made some kind of diversion or if it was just that most of them were out at the moment, but either way, Harry wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and wish trouble on them, so they quickly entered the disused room they had entered in and Harry climbed out onto the roof, signaling Gotetsu to be quiet as he began helping the man to get out of the window and to begin making their way to the tree they had used to climb up.

As Harry looked over the edge, he was sure he could see some bandits milling around outside. Again, he hoped they could get out of there without being seen.

Just then, Gotetsu stepped on a loose tile.

Swearing in his head, he quickly dragged Gotetsu to the opposite side of the roof so that the bandits that looked up suddenly didn't catch sight of them. From their possession, he heard one of them comment t must have been some sort of swamp creature that Harry didn't quite hear the name of. Sighing with relief, he shot Gotetsu a sharp look who, flushed, just shrugged helplessly in return.

Again, losing the battle in not rolling his eyes, Harry indicated for the man to follow him again, managing to get them into the branches without further incident. There came then, another problem. How was Harry going to get the man down? He wasn't a slim, small boy the side of Naruto, whom Harry had no problem lifting as he recalled when he had first met Naruto, but he was a full grown man. Harry was sure he couldn't carry Gotetsu down the tree without giving himself away by falling to the ground from the weight.

He guessed he was going to need ropes.

Pulling out his wand, he tried to recall the spell he had read about and had thought was useful, them smirked, pointing it at the tree. "Incarserous" he said. From his wand shot roles that tied themselves onto the tree tightly, checking them, he found that it gave enough of a hand hold to hold yourself up.

Sometimes being a wizard had its perks.

"Ok, you climb down here after me," Harry whispered. "I'll go first in case you fall so I can stop you hitting the ground.

Gotetsu blanched, but nodded and Harry quickly made his way down, before indicating the man to follow, holding the wand ready. If he fell, at least Harry could use a levitation charm to keep him from falling – yes, he was glad that he had a lot more practice in Wingarium Leviosa than in Incarserous. Thankfully, the man made it down without a hitch.

"What now?" Gotetsu whispered.

"Now we get out of the swamp and hope that Anko-sensei comes back ok," Harry said, "Follow me and step where I do unless you want to sink in the swamp."

Gotetsu shuddered at the thought, silently beginning to follow behind him.

They had made a good job of it so far and had made it out of the sinking swamp area and onto flat ground. It was only then that Harry looked around, frowing faintly. "I wonder where Sensei is…" he murmured to himself. However, Anko didn't show up at the murmur, so he sighed and turned to take Gotetsu back. "Come on, lets just get you to the capital again, oka- Uwa!" he yelped suddenly as something struck just where he was about to put his foot down and he back-peddled a little, dark green eyes widening a little when he realized it was a kunai that had almost sliced his toe off. Harry stiffened. A Kunai meant a ninja-

_But I thought that there wouldn't be any ninja involved in this mission, otherwise it wouldn't be a C-class…_

"Ah, leaving so soon?" a voice said from a couple of feet away from the duo, but seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Immediately becoming serious, Harry whipped around to look who had just aimed a Kunai at him and obviously spoke, trying to find out where the voice was actually being projected from.

"Up there!" Gotetsu said suddenly, pointing up into one of the trees. "That was the guy that caught me!"

Harry, quickly followed the aim of the finger and immediately his gaze fell upon a man standing in the trees.

If Harry hadn't guessed the man had been a ninja before, he definitely would have guessed now. The ninja was probably in his mid twenties and wore what looked like all black and, what Harry thought was something of a generic ninja outfit. It was a long sleeved black top that had a sort of half cloth mask that covered the man's chin on it and ninja trousers taped at the bottom in black cloth with black sandals. A hitae-ate that appeared to be an Ame headband was tied around his neck. Harry thought he was probably of about chunin level, perhaps, but he knew that it wasn't possible to fully work out what rank he was, because he wore nothing that gave it away exactly.

"You're foolish, Konoha-ninja," the man sneered. "You didn't really think you could escape with the old man that easily, did you?"

Harry moved in front of Gotetsu, a kunai at the ready on one hand, his wand ready in the other, but mentally he was biting his lip. Sure he'd fought people before. Hell, he'd even fought Anko, but he was certain that Anko wasn't aiming to kill him any of the times he faced her (although at times he had to doubt it). Either way he hadn't faced a ninja from another village before, and definitely not one that obviously was unhappy with him and, if he didn't do as he said, try to kill him.

But obviously he couldn't do as the man said, so…

He prayed that his estimate of the man's skill level was right, otherwise…

_Anko-sensei, if there was ever a convenient time to show, now would be very, very good!_

However, he let none of this show on his face. "Who are you," he demanded, hoping to at least stall for time until his sensei arrived. "What do you want?

"What do I want?" the ninja sneered. "You mess with my Yakuza and wonder what I want?"

_Wait, his Yakuza?_ "What do you mean your Yakuza?" Harry said, eyes narrowing

"Exactly what I said," the ninja said. "As you could guess, I was once a ninja, but after I became a nuke-nin, I began to form together a group to get what I need to survive in this world." The ninja jumped down. "Anyway, you shouldn't act so tough. You're just a genin, probably don't even know the true harsh world of a ninja yet and you haven't got a Jonin to protect you. You won't be able to beat me. Now if you give back the old man, I'll let you leave with your lives, otherwise, you'll die here."

Damn, this guy obviously wasn't the kind of monologue and grant him time, cutting right to the chase.

"No way."

"Well then, I guess you can die here!" With that, the man darted forwards.

Harry was right when he thought that he hadn't actually fought a ninja that really wanted to kill him. Thankfully, at the first sign of battle, Gotetsu ducked for cover into the undergrowth. Glad that he wouldn't need to watch where he dodged, Harry was barely able to put his kunai up in time to block the other's kunai, only to find seconds later a foot planted against his chest, sending him crashing to the ground painfully. Wincing, he opened his eyes just in time to see him bringing his foot down in a harsh axe kick and with a gasp he rolled out of the way.

The Ninja drew out a fan of kunai and began to fling them in Harry's direction and Harry barely managed to get out of the line of fire as he scrambled to his feet, slamming back against a tree in the attempt, aiming his wand at the man.

"Inca-" But he didn't get to finish the spell as the man slashed at him with a sword and he dodged to the side, a couple of strands of dark hair flitting past his eyes from where the sword grazed some of his hair. "Incendio!" He managed instead, sending fire at the man, but only managed to singe the hemp of the man's clothes. Growling he tucked the wand away and began to battle him with Taijutsu, his Sharingan long since activated as he tred his best to dodge and parry the attacks, looking for an opening.

He was fast, Harry could tell that much as he found himself crashing to the ground again from a round house kick that sent him crashing to the floor. Mid-fall he flung some kunai at the man, just before he felt the ground hit him and sharp pain in his side as he skidded along the ground, closely followed by more kunai. He managed to roll partially out of the way, but grunted when his sleeve got caught by one of the kunai. Quickly he tugged at just as the man was about to blast at him with a blast of some kind of wind jutsu. Quickly he yanked hard on the sleeve, pulling himself out of target zone, just as the man pounced down on him, hand going to Harry's throat.

Without thinking, Harry shot out a hand, snakes shooting from his un-ripped sleeve straight at the man's face. From the sudden cry and the fact that he clawed at his face a moment, Harry guessed he must have hit, the snakes poofing away as the ninja slashed at them and Harry scrambled up to his feet, just as the man cried out again.

Gasping in shock, Harry looked over to see that Anko had just arrived, what looked like a trophy like item in her hands, having just struck the man over the head with it. "Looks like you needed some help, Gaki," Anko smirked.

"You took…your dammed time…" Harry panted, wincing at the pain in his side.

"I'm here aren't I?" she retorted. "Let's just get the guy. This is running into my Anko time," she added as she twirled a kunai around her hand and darted forwards at the ninja again.

Harry wondered if you could roll your eyes so much they dropped out.

"Huh, a Jonin, huh?" the man hissed as he got to his feet again. Harry thought now was the time to perhaps keep an eye on Gotetsu in case the man felt like using a dirty underhanded trick like using the man as a human shield or something, and backed over to Gotetsu, panting as he held a kunai and wand prepared again, getting his breath back as he watched his sensei and the ninja fight. Harry couldn't recall ever watching Anko fight from some other perspective than being at the receiving end, but Harry had to say seeing two higher leveled ninja battle it out was awe inspiring, while at the same time, terriflying. He was sure his fight must have looked abysmal in comparison. But right then, neither seemed to be getting the upper hand until the ninja did some kind of weird jutsu and the kunai Anko just flung at him was thrown back. Anko ducked, but the kunai stabbed through the material of her coat, pinning her to the tree. Snarling, she tugged at it for a moment, just as the man moved and her attention shifted back to the ninja, just as the man raised his blade.

Quickly, without thinking, Harry thought of the thing he could think of doing to make him drop his blade.

"Petrificus Totalus," He said suddenly.

The light shot out of his wand and the man's arms clamped together and his legs. The sword clattered to the ground. The man's eyes looked surprised, then glaring.

Snickering, Anko managed to pull the kunai from her coat, then with two fingers to the ninja's forehead, pushed him and the man fell to the ground.

"Thank you Hermione," Harry murmured with a grin, glad he remembered that spell from when Hermione used it on Neville back at Hogwarts. At least that spell was precise. The jutsu he knew might have accidentally burned his sensei in the process. He was just glad the ninja had been pre-occupied with Anko.

"Nice timing," Anko said in praise and Harry rubbed the side of his nose, pleased.

"What are you going to do with that guy then?" Gotetsu asked finally.

"Hand him over to the hunter ninja," Anko said. "I can't be bothered to deal with this guy more."

"Then can we go home?" Harry asked. "I think I've really had enough of this mission now."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Once the group had gotten back to the capital, things began to progress smoothly. The ninja was bound up and held prisoner with chakra suppressors until the hunter ninja could pick him up, Gotetsu was reunited with the Daimyo and the Daimyo sent a message and increased pay to Konoha so that they could be paid for what actually turned out to be a B-classed mission. And finally, they could go home.

What Harry wasn't pleased about was that they had to deal with that damned Uruhara again!

And for most of the way back he had been complaining about how they had taken longer than expected and how on earth they managed to dent a priceless artifact.

"Honestly and the Damiyou paid you extra for such…such foolery?" he added scathingly at the two ninja who were sitting at the front of the boat.

Harry cast a desperate look towards Anko as land began to come into sight. "Now can we beat him up?" Harry begged.

Anko rubbed her chin. "Well, we couldn't do anything before as we would have probably been replaced on the mission, but since we've already been paid…"

Harry caught the look in Anko's eye and felt a smile tug at his lips, before, as one, they turned to look at Uruhara.

"Why are you two looking at me like that?" Uruhara demanded nervously, then his eyes widened. "H-hey, w-wait, you can't…waaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

At the inn the Harry and Anko had stayed at that night they had first gone on the mission, there were a small croud of people murmering to each other outside as they looked at the poor groaning man on the floor, while Anko and Harry themselves were cheerfully heading back towards Konoha.

"Did you really have to leave that message saying 'I love sausage' on him?" Anko asked Harry with a raised brow.

"Probebly not," Harry shrugged. "but really, he got on my nerves."

"Oh well," Anko shrugged, slinging an arm around Harry's shoulder. "So how about we get some more Dango now? My treat?"

"Hell yeah!"

And with that, the two Konoha-ninja finally darted off into the treetops to race home. After all, they had a good motivation.

**TBC**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**Chosha's notes**

Yeah, I want to apologies for my sucky fight scene, but honestly, I went brain dead. I couldn't find true inspiration for a fight with an OC that'll never show up ever again. But really, I'll try harder on my next fight scene! Promise!

To be honest the chapter was taking me too long and I wanted to hurry and get it out finally. For some reason I struggled with the mission. I used to have good ideas for it, but…..writers block damn you! Anyway, next chapter actually has something of interest to aim at, so I think I should be able to actually pull that chapter off better than this, considering we're getting back on the Magical scene. Plus I actually have proper plot Ideas I've been dying to start for year two at Hogwarts too, so…yeah, I suppose that's why I was struggling here. Again, apologies.

By the way, if you would like a translation of any of the Japanese, please look on previous chapters. Or, if there's any I used that I haven't mentioned before, please mention in a review and I'll add on a translation to the chapter

Anyway, how was it? Bad? Good? Please review. Constructive criticism allowed – that means if you think it was bad, tell me why it was bad and how to improve, instead of just saying it was bad. Thank you for being so patient with me.

**Next time on Uchiha Potter**

**Harry:** Finally that mission's over and I'm back with my brothers, but…..wait, hang on, my Hogwarts letter hasn't arrived? What's going on here? Is someone intercepting my mail?

**Anko**: well, while you're waiting, I might as well do a bit more teaching.

**Harry:** Next episode, Mail, Idiots, Alleys and Serpents. You won't want to miss it!

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	14. Chapter 13: Mail, Serpents, Alleyways

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Beta'd by Paradox Of Life**_

_**Important notes:**_

_This is the Beta'd version, as stated above, so thanks goes to __**Paradox Of Life**__ for the hard work. Also, from now onwards, I'll be using this layout for my chapters (Influenced from Guilt of Innocence, I guess. Lol). All my normal notes will be at the chapter's end._

_**Last Time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_Finally managing to find the location of the Archaeologist that they were hired to save, Harry and Anko managed to help him escape, only to have to take down the ninja leader of the Yakuza gang. Now, with the mission complete, the duo now head back to Konoha once more._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire relating media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is fan fiction only and is written purely for entertainment and not meant as infringement of any rights belonging to the artist, the author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Mail, Serpents, Alleyways and Idiots**

Harry had never been happier to see the gates of Konoha as they finally, finally, broke through the forests that surrounded the village itself. The mission had been a lot of things – annoying, terrifying, exciting, even somewhat amusing and he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy getting to know his sensei a bit more. After all, he had never realised how much he actually had in common with the kunoichi. Still, it was good to be home. After all the travelling and fighting and such that they had done, he felt as though there was a thin layer of dust covering his skin and hair and he was still tired from the battles that they had had, and he was sure he was probably covered in bruises too. The idea of a nice warm shower sounded great to him.

"Alright, well done anyway, Midori-me," Anko said with a grin, ruffling Harry's hair roughly and the Uchiha couldn't help but offer her a tired glare, batting her hands away. He had long since gotten used to his sensei's odd behaviour that he only offered token resistance now – it wouldn't matter anyway, the crazy sensei would probably get away with it whatever he did. "You should head home and get cleaned up. I'm going to give in the report and all. I'll send you a message when we'll be training again. See you later," she chimed before vanishing in a poof of smoke, leaving Harry on his own standing at Konoha's entrance.

Well, at least he didn't have to give any reports. The last thing he wanted to do was stand around reporting every little detail about what had happened when there was a shower and a bed waiting for him. He doubted his brothers would be back yet – it was still academy time, but he was sure that he could give them a nice surprise when they did get back.

Stretching his hands over his head with a yawn, feeling his spine pop slightly as he did so, Harry began to head in the familiar direction of his apartment, only offering a half smile and a nod of greeting to anyone who waved to him in return, not really feeling in the mood to start a big long conversation when he was sure he would likely be yawning for the majority of the conversation. Not that anyone would have said anything – that was the normal state that he ended up coming back in from Anko's training.

Perhaps that was why no one was trying to start in-depth conversations with him. For that he was thankful.

Pulling the key out of a pocket to get in his apartment, he unlocked the door and quickly glanced around the place to make sure everything was in order and not half destroyed – he still remembered that prank war that had happened between Sasuke and Naruto early on last year before all the Hogwarts business. As it was, it seemed they had, thankfully, not been doing anything reckless around the house, so the entire apartment was just the way he'd left it except for a scroll that was lying on the table in the kitchen that had obviously been read before the two younger boys had headed off to the academy for the day. Nothing too important. It just looked like some kind of revision scroll or something to him. On the bird stands near the kitchen window it seemed that Housenka, the redish-brown postal owl, was currently sleeping with her head under her wing while Manji, the black owl, looked over at him as he walked into the kitchen, hooting softly in way of greeting

Smiling, Harry reached over and ran his fingers over Manji's soft feathers, receiving an affectionate nibble in return before he dropped his bag on the table to sort out later, being mindful not to disturb the scroll (or Housenka, who was still sleeping). He'd give the birds a treat later, but he still had a longing for a shower, so with that in mind, he headed off to his own room and pulled out some clean clothes and a towel before heading into the bathroom for a shower. Placing the clothes and towel on the side, he stripped himself of the dirt-covered clothes and stepped into the shower, turning on the warm water at full power, letting it patter on his skin, cleaning off the dirt from the mission and soothing the aches from his bruised body. Once he was cleaned and dried off, dressed in clean clothes once more, Harry yawned as he rubbed the towel over his wet hair, glancing at the clock on the wall. The others wouldn't be back just yet, so he shrugged. Sleep sounded good about now. Just a little nap before the other two got home.

Nodding to himself, Harry headed over to his room and flopped onto the bed unceremoniously, almost falling asleep before his head hit the pillow.

It barely felt as though he had slept much at all when he found himself waking up to the sound of the front door opening and the sound of familiar voices drifted through his half-open bedroom door.

_Well, I suppose that was good timing,_ Harry thought with a stretch as he pulling himself up into sitting position with a smile. He knew he hadn't really been away from his brothers for that long in the grand scheme of things – his time at Hogwarts had been longer, but it didn't change the fact that he had missed the two boys quite a bit.

Smiling, Harry got up and quietly slipped out of the room and headed toward the kitchen when he could hear Sasuke and Naruto's voices coming from.

"Hey, why's there a bag on the table?" Harry heard Naruto say. "Did you leave your bag here this morning?"

"Don't be such an idiot. Why would I have left my bag, dobe?" Sasuke's voice shot back, as if irritated that Naruto would think him so irresponsible.

As Harry reached the door, he couldn't help but smile as he saw his brothers both standing by the table. Sasuke's irritation seemed to have melded into thoughtful a moment, before realisation broke on his face moments before Naruto seemed to come to a realisation.

"Do you think….?"

"It looks like it is, dattebayo," Naruto agreed eagerly.

Deciding to put them out of their misery, Harry coughed behind his hand and grinned when they both whipped around, eyes lightning up at the sight of their older brother. "Yo," he said with a grin. "Missed me?"

"Niisan/Aniki!" came the duel cry from the two boys and a mere moment later Harry found himself staggering under the weight of the two younger children's hugs that, if he hadn't been a ninja, would have sent him flat on his back in the middle of the apartment.

"I take it that this means you did miss me," Harry laughed, ruffling his brothers' hair.

"Niisan, niisan, what did you do on your mission?" Naruto asked eagerly, his blue eyes sparkling at the possibilities. "Did you save a princess? Beat up bad guys? Come on, tell us, tell us!"

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you all about it," Harry promised. "But I don't know about you guys but I'm starving and I don't feel like cooking. Let's eat out."

"Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked eagerly. Seeing Sasuke about to open his mouth, Naruto whipped around and pointed to him. "No! You wouldn't let be go there at all while Harry-niisan was away. I've been good. I haven't eaten ramen in days, Sasuke. _Days_!" he stressed, eyes widening to the point they were shimmering, as if on the edge of tears.

Sasuke snorted. "You sound like an addict or something."

"I do not," Naruto pouted, crossing his arms across his chest and Harry chuckled, shaking his head. Never a dull moment. Man, he really missed these two. Anko was awesome and all (especially since they had discovered that they had so much in common) but his brothers were his brothers after all.

"Alright, alright, we can go have ramen. My treat," Harry agreed as Naruto threw up his arms and cheered. "Just let me grab a few things. Go get ready, ok?" He added as he headed over to where he placed the apartment key and his wallet. But his eye caught sight of the calendar and he paused a moment, eyeing the date on there. It was actually around the time that he had gotten the letter for Hogwarts last year, and that made him thoughtful. Shouldn't he be getting a letter soon about what he needed to get for his next term at Hogwarts?

Hearing the low chatter from Naruto and Sasuke out in the hall where they were donning their sandals, Harry called over, though his eyes were still resting on the calendar. "Hey guys," he called down the hall to the younger boys, "did we have any post while I was gone?"

"Just a couple of magazines and a bill or too," Sasuke called back. "Any reason?"

"Oh, no, it's fine," Harry called back, waving it off. _Hm…Maybe it's only the first years who get their letters this early_, Harry thought to himself, shrugging as he snatched the keys up and headed over to where his sandals were, slipping them on. Oh well, he wasn't too worried. They had plenty of time before Harry would really have to think on the next coming term of Hogwarts. He'd already finished off his homework and the like when the holiday began – his upbringing as an Uchiha had told him to get things like that out of the way in advance after all. "Well then, shall we get going? You can tell me what you've been up to while I've been away too."

_Still, it is kind of weird..._ he couldn't help but admit as he locked the door behind them and they followed the enthusiastic Naruto towards where Ichiraku's restaurant was. _I mean, I haven't had a single letter from anyone in the wizarding word the entire time I've been back in Konoha from the first year at Hogwarts. It might just be that I'm over-thinking things. I do live a long way away from England after all – the others probably don't have long distant birds like I do, but I even sent letters with Manji and Housenka and got nothing back….its kind of weird. Could the letters have been intercepted or something….?_

The elder Uchiha shook his head with a snort. _Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Still….maybe I should ask the Hokage anyway. Just in case._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was the next day by the time that Harry had really been able to go to see Sarutobi. It had gotten somewhat late by the time Sasuke, Naruto and himself had finished catching up and the like, and even though Harry did want to speak with him concerning the letter, he was still exhausted from the mission and found himself pretty much falling asleep once he'd gotten home. Thus, since he had some time off after finishing the 'C-classed' mission and all, it seemed now was as good a time as any to see if he could chat with the Hokage about the Hogwarts letter.

Knocking on the door to the Hokage's office, he quickly stepped in. "Morning, Hokage-ojiisan," he said with a smile, closing the door behind him again. "Got time?"

"Ah, Harry-kun," Sandaime, who was sitting at his desk currently signing off a paper of some kind, looked up and smiled as he caught sight of the elder Uchiha. "I'd heard that you were back when Anko gave the mission report. I hear that you performed commendably. I think you rather impressed her."

"Heh, well, I guess you could say we get along a bit better now," Harry admitted, rubbing the back of his head with a soft chuckle as he unceremoniously flopped into one of the chairs across from the old man's desk. "It was actually kind of fun, in a way. I sort of realised I still have a long way to go, training wise, but don't most ninja think like that?"

"Indeed. If there comes a day that you believe you have nothing else to learn, that's the day that you stop becoming any stronger," The Hokage said. "I must say with you and your 'brothers', I still have a lot to learn before I can fully understand you," he added, the quirk in his lips showing his slightly teasing edge.

"Hah hah, very funny," Harry snorted, rolling his eyes as he relaxed a little in the chair. "Though that's a bit surprising. Can't you spy on people with that crystal ball thingy?"

"Seeing what people can do is one thing, Harry-kun," the Sandaime pointed out wisely. "But understanding what drives people to do what they do is entirely different."

"Hm…I guess that's kind of true," He couldn't help but admit. _I guess this is why they nickname him the Professor, _Harry realised with a nod to himself, _It kind of reminds me of Headmaster Dumbledore. Its probably why the two of them get along so well._

_Speaking of Dumbledore…_

"Actually, I kind of have a question, Ojiisan."

"Hm? And what would that be?"

"Well…" Harry leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers together. "I guess I'm kind of concerned. You know Hogwarts and everything? You…wouldn't happen to have heard from them at all, would you?"

"Not since you've returned from the first year of learning magic there," Sarutobi admitted. "Is there something amiss?"

"I could just be being paranoid and all, but I haven't got any mail at all from England, not from my friends, or from the school and it was about this time that I had the letter before. If it comes much later, I'm not sure I'd be able to get any of the equipment and the like. You don't think owls were getting shot down by ninja or intercepted at all, do you?" he asked, looking over at him, before running a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I know it makes me sound paranoid…"

"Hm…" Sarutobi frowned ever so slightly, thoughtfully, before he nodded. "Well, there is a possibility. After all, Owls flying in the day is a bit suspicious so they could have assumed it was something to do with a mission. I'll have a look into it anyway, Harry-kun, so try not to worry about it."

"Thanks, Ojiisan," he said with a smile.

"On another note, it would seem that Anko has some interesting training for you that she asked permission from me for. I think you may find it rather interesting."

Harry couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that, feeling a little uneasy. Sure he had found similarities between himself and Anko and they were getting on pretty well, but the truth of the matter was that Anko was a sadist and her training was brutal to begin with. If she actually needed permission from the Hokage…?

"What kind of training?" Harry asked, a little uneasily.

The Hokage merely gave him a secretive smile over his intertwined fingers.

"You're not going to tell me, are you," Harry grumbled, shooting him an accusing half-glare.

"That's up for your sensei to decide, Harry-kun, not me. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." The Hokage said, closing his eyes. "All I can say is that it'll likely be beneficial to you with your current skill-set."

"Hm…well does it sounds interesting either way, assuming she doesn't kill me or something," Harry said, actually a little curious by this point wondering what 'skill set' of his that Sarutobi was actually referring to. _Well, it could be Taijutsu…Ninjutsu…something to do with magic or to do with the Sharingan. Anko doesn't seem the kind to really focus on Genjutsu so I'm going to rule that out. She doesn't have Sharingan or magic, as far as I'm aware, so I can rule those out, so its likely some form of Ninjutsu or Taijutsu. Huh…_

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Sarutobi waved it off. "Now, how are your 'brothers'?"

This perked Harry up a little. After all, he always enjoyed talking about his small family "Oh, they're alright," Harry said brightly. "They've been doing their best at the academy. Naruto's been helping to save Sasuke from those fan girls of his, and Sasuke thinks that Naruto has a stalker in the class," he added with a laugh. What would Neji think if he knew that 'Hinata-sama' had taken an interest in Naruto. And from the way the Hokage seemed to chuckle as well, perhaps he was thinking of a similar thing. And so, for the rest of his little visit, the conversation had dissolved into less serious matters and regular catching up.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It had been a nice couple of days off after the mission. Since Harry had promised, he bought his brothers and himself tickets to see the 'Princess Fuin' movie, much to Naruto's pleasure and they had enjoyed it, though they often had to keep Naruto quiet so they wouldn't get thrown out of the movie theatre. He did enjoy the few days of relaxation and spending time with his brothers, but all good things had to come to an end and Anko had sent him a message saying that they would be beginning some training at their usual training spot for a few days before they did a few more D-classed missions. While Harry was annoyed that he would be doing D-classed missions again, he guessed he could see the reasoning – after all, if the Hokage managed to work out his letter situation, Harry would be concentrating on preparing for his next 'year' at Hogwarts again, which he couldn't be away from the village for. At least he had this training to hold his interest though. As much as he thought that it could potentially be life threatening, the Hokage had said that it would be good for him and his 'skill-set'.

When he reached the training grounds, it seemed that Anko was already there, arms crossed and giving him an irritated look. "You're late, kid. Where were you?"

"I only just got the message, sensei," Harry shot back, rolling his eyes. "I came as soon as I heard though. So, what's this training all about anyway?"

"Well, I've been thinking on it since that little test I gave you and I saw that little skill of yours, and after that last mission we had, I've decided," Anko said as she paused in her pacing, whipping around so her coat swayed about her and grinned, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm going to start teaching you how to summon snakes."

"What? Isn't that a high level jutsu?" Harry asked. Despite this, he couldn't help but feel eager. There were some clans that held summon scrolls for various animals, but not every clan, and usually having summons of any kind could be a pretty good help. Like Anko's snakes had been on that Swamp country mission. So this was the thing that the Hokage had given permission for? No wonder he kept it a surprise.

"Sure it is, but you're not exactly a little pansy, Uchiha. I think you can handle it," Anko scoffed, waving it off. "Besides, you can talk to snakes in their own language, so you'd have a pretty big advantage with summoning snakes too. I probably wouldn't be teaching you this if you couldn't, but it's not like you're _him _anyway." Anko added, her brown eyes flashing for a moment and Harry, who had about to ask what she meant by that, decided to close his mouth again. He had a feeling if he did actually bring up the subject he'd probably get trounced by the Jonin. Still, she kept referencing someone that seemed to have some serpent links…

Maybe it was something to bring up later, since it already seemed to be something of a touchy subject if her darkening face when she mentioned 'Him' (whoever 'he' was) was anything to go by. They'd only recently started to get along after all; he'd rather not have to spend ages with a cranky Anko teaching him. After all, cranky Anko meant ouchie Harry.

"Anyway, I suppose it'll be useful for you." Anko added. "And I've already managed to convince the Hokage too. So, that's what our training's going to consist of for now before you have to go back to that Pig Spot place of yours."

"That's 'Hogwarts', Sensei," Harry pointed out in exasperation.

"Hogwarts, Pig Spots, same thing," Anko waved it off. "Whatever it's called, we'll be starting off the training here, but I want you to practice while you're at that place. The Hokage's told me you can do it, what with water walking and all that lot you learned from the scrolls last year so I think you can pull it off."

Rummaging in an inner coat pocket which surely would have sent all nearby perverts crashing to the ground with bleeding noses, Anko withdrew what looked like a scroll. "This is a summoning scroll, or rather a smaller and easier transportable version. In order to summon an animal of any kind, you need to sign a contract with them. Once you've signed a contract with them, you'll eventually, with practice, be able to summon the type of animal you've signed a contact with by forming seals and using blood. Some people use the scroll as the medium for this, others use tattoo's, though it depends on the person and the animal summon. We won't be trying to summon the boss snake though," she added warningly. "He tends to demand sacrifices - Human sacrifices at that." Harry couldn't help but shiver in disgust at the mere thought and Anko nodded, seeing that Harry understood before she continued. "But the other snakes aren't as picky as he is, so as long as we don't try to bring out the boss snake, we won't have anything to worry about. Got that, Uchiha?"

"Got it." Harry said, swallowing back the thought of what would happen if he summoned the boss snake, but decided to keep it to himself. "So…what exactly do I do?"

"You'll be signing your name on this scroll with your blood," Anko said, smirking faintly as she held up the scroll before tossing it over to him.

"Why am I not surprised, Wacked-out Psycho-sensei," Harry snorted, caching the scroll out of the air before crouching down, rolling the scroll open once more and curiously looking at it.

There were many kinds of jutsu that demanded a kind of 'blood sacrifice' to work, usually just needing a drop or two of blood to help use the ability. Usually it was more higher class jutsu. In this case, Harry assumed it was so that the summon animals would know if the person was someone who was actually in contract with them. While it was still a little disturbing that you would have to actively make yourself bleed to use the jutsu, he shrugged it off. After all, if you were afraid of a little blood how exactly were you going to fight as a ninja? And a couple of drops wouldn't hurt, especially if having a summon really could be quite a trump-card in a tight spot.

Shaking off his thoughts, he turned his attention back to the scroll itself.

There seemed to be a long list of names of people who had signed the scroll prior to himself, all written in what looked like blood, though it was now more of a brownish colour, having long since dried. The only name Harry recognised on there was that for his sensei, the kanji and katakana for 'Mitarashi Anko' in his sensei's handwriting stood out clearly to him. The name before it being a slightly odd one that sounded familiar. Orochimaru. Wasn't that the name of one of the sannin? He wasn't too sure. He might have misheard or something as the third member of the sannin was rarely mentioned.

Still, it wasn't any of his business.

Crossing his legs with the scroll laying on top of his knees, Harry took up one of his kunai and nicked the tip of his index and middle finges, wincing a little, but ignored it as the red beads began to form over the cut. Though it was a little blotchy, Harry managed to sign his name on the scroll with slow, precise movements:

**Uc**hih**a-P**ot**te**r Har**ry**

"There we go," Harry murmured after he had finished, using a healing jutsu to heal the cuts on his fingers and blew gently on the writing in hopes to dry it a little quicker. "Alright then, sensei, what do you do now?"

"I'm going to show you how you go about summoning a summon creature," Anko said. "I want you to use those funky eyes of yours with this. It'll help speed things along a bit to remember those seals, since you're probably going to be a little busy at that Hogwarts place. Better for you to brand it in your head so you don't forget it for that hocus pocus Voodoo crap."

"Magic."

"Whatever, just turn on those eyes, Uchiha," Anko growled.

To be honest with himself, Harry would have preferred to just learn it the normal way, but Anko was right, they would be short on time, depending on how soon the Hokage could actually work out what was going on with his Hogwarts letter. Besides, arguing would take more energy than actually activating his Sharingan, so he just shrugged and did as told. "Alright, what am I looking at?"

"I'm going to be summoning a snake so you can have a look at what needs to be done. When you're summoning any kind of summon, these are the hand seals you need to memorise," Anko said, "Keep your eyes on it, Uchiha, I'm only doing this once." She added before she began to run through the seals slowly so that Harry could copy them, with Harry following, practicing the seals themselves, memorising the sequence, his eyes also taking in the flow of chakra as Anko was about to summon.

Biting her thumb, enough to draw blood, she began:

Boar seal, Dog seal, Bird, Monkey, Ram- "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Anko cried, slamming her hand into the ground and what looked like strange seals shot across the ground like spider legs and with a poof, a cloud of smoke appeared and, as it settled, Harry found himself looking at a snake, much like the one he had seen in Swamp Country that Anko had summoned before. "And that's how you summon," she said proudly.

"Why did you summon me exactly?" the snake asked, irritably, in human language (Harry really couldn't get used to hearing honest to God human language from a snake instead of the translated snake language that he'd been used to from the many snake-related missions.)

"Teaching this kid how to summon," Anko pointed out, indicating Harry.

The snake looked around at him, eyeing him curiously, before scoffing, turning his head away. "Kid won't last three minutes. It'll be a waste of time."

Harry felt his eyebrow tick. Honestly, what was it with snakes and being disrespectful? Quickly he stepped forward and grabbed the thing around the 'neck', forcing it to look at him._"Listen you," _Harry snarled, slipping into snake language as he always did when there was a snake in the vicinity. The snake, who had been struggling, stopped, staring at him with shock and it's jaw dropping, stunned. _"I've had enough with snakes always being difficult. You have no idea what I can and can't do, so you have no right to say anything. At least not 'til you've seen what I can do. Got it?"_

"_You…how can you speak the snake language?"_ the snake managed to stutter out, in it's own shock seeming to slip into it's own tongue.

"_Who knows, its probably some kind of bloodline, but that's beside the point,"_ Harry said, dropping the snake back down again and standing to his full height._"I'm going to learn how to summon snakes and Gods help me, I'm not going to let a snake tell me otherwise."_

"_Right…Ok…summon away" _squeaked the snake, sounding a little awed at the thought of a human that could actually speak a snake language_. "Not even he can…I got to tell Manda-sama about this!" _and with a poof, the snake dismissed itself.

Harry couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. There was that 'He' reference again. Well, whatever. He glanced at Anko, who was frowning that the snake had dismissed itself. "It said it was going to tell 'Manda-sama' about this. Who's Manda?"

"He's the boss snake," Anko said and Harry raised an eyebrow, wondering what was going to happen because of that, but Anko shrugged. "I'll look at it later. Right now, we've got some snake summoning to do, so, let's get started, Uchiha," she added with a grin.

"Alright, alright," Harry said. "Let's get practicing, I guess," he added, biting on his own thumb. After all, he wouldn't learn it properly if he didn't actively test it out himself. Running through the seals, he slammed his hand to the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The summoning practice had been going quite well, for the most part. He had, at the very least, been managing to summon smaller snakes and the like (though all of them currently wanted to tell Manda all about the boy who could speak snake language), but he couldn't yet summon anything longer than the snake that Anko had summoned, much to his disappointment. Still, Anko said that being able to summon anything at all was a start and that he just needed practice and to build up his chakra reserves to summon the much larger snakes in the 'family'. Well, it was a start, either way, so Harry wasn't too irritated by the lack of further progress.

What he did have progress on, however, was the Hogwarts letter. Thankfully, a few days after he had started learning to summon, the Hokage called him over to the office. When Harry got over there, he found the Hokage with a faint frown on his face, thoughtful as he sat at his desk. On the desk was a familiar parchment envelope with emerald green writing.

"Hey, that's the Hogwarts letter, isn't it," Harry said brightly as he came in, dropping in the chair in front of the man's desk.

"Aha, indeed it is," Sarutobi said with a smile, pulling himself from his thoughts as he handed the letter over to him. "Albus-kun sends his apologies that the letter was delayed in coming to you."

Harry took the letter from him, not yet opening it though. "So, what was the problem then?" he asked as he idly checked the name and address on it, though it was weird to see the 'address' was currently to the Hokage's office, which felt like it was once again directly pinpointing his current location.

"Well, they're not actually sure," Sarutobi said. "For some reason it appeared that your letter never actually got to leave the country at all. It could be that your location kept changing, or it could be there was someone intercepting your mail in England. Either way, Albus-kun is looking into it. As it is, I have been given a portkey to send you to Diagon Alley in a few days time. So, you'll have enough time to prepare yourself for going and to tell your 'brothers' also."

"Yeah, sure," Harry agreed, tucking the letter away to have a look at when he got back home. "Not that I'd just vanish off without telling them where I'm going. They almost killed me when I vanished off for two days when Anko was testing me to take me on as a student. Anyway, I better get back. Brothers to tend to, letters to read, you know, that kind of thing. I think I'm going to give Housenka and Manji a little training too," he added idly.

"Training?" Sarutobi's eyebrow quirked up and Harry grinned.

"Yeah, training. It'd be annoying if people keep intercepting the mail or whatever, if that's what was stopping my mail from getting here again, so I think I'm going to teach them how to fend off interceptors."

"That sounds a good idea, especially considering ninja of some other villages," the Hokage agreed with a nod.

"I'll let you know how that goes," Harry said, before heading out of the door, raising a hand in a wave. "See you later, Ojiisan."

Once Harry had returned to his apartment, he flopped onto the sofa and opened the envelope with a quick flick of a kunai, pulling out the letters from inside and scanning them. The letter was similar to the one that he had the previous year, telling of various items that they might need (if they hadn't got any or had used them up during last term). There was a letter saying that the Hogwarts Express would be leaving from Kings Cross station as usual and that there was a portkey to the station in the Hokage's office for September first. The letter also included the train ticket, which he put on the side to take with him when September came around. There was also a book list for what he would need that next year:

_Second Years Students will require:_

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk_

_Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_What the heck is up with these titles?_ Harry thought, pulling a face at how…childish the titles of the books were. They sounded more like bedtime stories than books for education. Then again, maybe this 'Gilderoy Lockhart' person was just really unimaginative with titles or something. But it was kind of weird. After all, apart from the standard book of spells, all the other books were by Lockhart. Maybe the content was much more informative than they actually sounded by the titles. After all, they do say don't judge a book by its cover. So, he shrugged and put the list to one side. He'd be able to sort that out later on.

Right now, however, he had something else on his mind.

"Oh, Housenka, Manji," Harry called to the birds that were watching him from their perch in the kitchen. "Come here a minute. We've got some things to do."

_After all, no way in hell am I going to let someone get at my mail again._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Eeeeeeh? Why can't we go Ojiisan?"

Harry sighed, feeling a little disappointed as he, Naruto and Sasuke were once more standing in the Hokage's office as the old man massaged his temples, wincing slightly from Naruto's loud complaint. It was the day that Harry was supposed to be heading off to Diagon Alley to get the equipment that he needed for his next year at Hogwarts. Harry had already gone through his trunk, checking up on his supplies from last year and writing down the things he would need to stock up on as well as the new books that he would need - he was running out of a few potion ingredients and his quill really needed replacing. However, it would seem that Sarutobi had been unable to convince the Academy to allow the students a day off, mainly because it seemed that they were having tests that week to see how the students were keeping up.

"I'm afraid the tests can't be re-arranged, and Harry-kun's port key is charmed to only to work for today," Sarutobi explained patiently. "I'll have things arranged so that you'll be able to visit this place with Harry-kun next year and procure an escort, but I'm afraid its just not possible for you to go this year."

"That sucks, dattebayo…" Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms with a pout as Sasuke sighed, obviously disappointed.

"I know…but at least you're guaranteed to be able to come with me next year, right?" Harry said with a grin as he ruffled his brothers' hair, much to their protest. "I'll make sure to bring you guys back something interesting, ok? So cheer up."

"But we barely got to see you at all this summer," Sasuke sighed.

"I'm sorry," Harry admitted sincerely. "But you'll be coming over for Christmas again, and I promise to spend the entire thing with you guys. And when I come back from Diagon Alley, I'll spend the rest of the summer with you guys too."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Alright, I guess I can let this slide then," Sasuke sniffed, whipping his head to one side with his arms crossed. "You better bring back something good to make up for it."

Harry laughed and ruffled Sasuke's hair again, much to Sasuke's despair. "Alright, alright. I promise I'll bring something good back for you too."

"You better," Sasuke grumbled as he corrected his hair again.

"Well, its almost time for you to be going, Harry-kun," Sarutobi said as he passed two scrolls over to him. One was red in colour, the other was green. "According to Albus-kun, the red one will take you to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley," the Hokage explained. "That one's set to leave in a couple of minutes. The green one will bring you back here, with the password to activate it being 'Home'."

"Alright, I got it," Harry nodded, before turning to his brothers and scooping them into a quick hug. "You two do your best in those exams later on today and I'll see you later. Try not to freak out about it this time," Harry added with a teasing wink.

"And try not to fall on us this time, Harry," Sasuke added grumpily, though his cheeks were tinted a little pink from the teasing.

"Ah, touché," Harry closed his eyes with a nod, pulling back from his brothers. "Well, anyway, this thing'll be off in a bit. I'll see you later."

"See you later, Niisan!" Naruto chirruped. "Remember to bring back some cool stuff for us!"

"Will do," Harry said with a grin, just before there was that uncomfortable tugging feeling at his navel as the Portkey activated and moments later, the room had vanished in a swirl of colour and rushing wind as he was teleported away.

The teleportation was just as disorientating as the last few times he had used a portkey and he still felt a little out of place with them, but when he finally 'landed', Harry was at least able to keep his footing and not end up in a pile on the floor like the first time he used them.

He supposed he had to thank his training for that too.

Brushing his windswept hair out of his face with a hand, Harry had a look around to see where he had landed.

The Leaky Cauldron was much the same as it had been the last time Harry had visited once, he had arrived in one of the rooms that seemed to be made for the sole purpose of being a place out of the way for people teleporting in and out of the inn itself (at least according to the sign hanging over the door, unless one was going to travel by something he discovered was called 'Floo', whatever that was.) It was still a rather dark, dingy little place with strange people dressed in odd clothing (having just come from Muggle London and not really knowing what Muggles actually wear), or various kinds of robes and the like. Remembering that he would be stared at if his scar was on show, Harry reached up to check that the Portkey hadn't moved his Hitae-ate at all before he stepped out into the main part of the pub, heading straight for the back, where he recalled Flitwick had taken him the previous year to get into Diagon Alley itself.

Curiously, he had a look at the wall that was the entrance to the alley and drew his wand, trying to bring up the mental picture of the combination of bricks that he was supposed to tap with the wand tip to get in. He knew that in England, students were not supposed to do magic outside of Hogwarts, but since he had been living in a completely different country, the law hadn't really applied (there wasn't a Ministry of Magic in the Elemental Countries after all). But now he was in the country, he'd rather not get himself into trouble and draw attention to himself. But there was no actual magic involved other than tapping a combination of bricks, so Harry doubted he'd get in trouble.

Tapping the bricks, he watched as the wall wiggled and parted, the bricks rearranging themselves into the archway that was the entrance to the alley. With a grin, Harry stepped into Diagon alley and headed through the people with a purpose. He had a bit of wizarding money left over from the last time he had been there, but he somehow doubted that it would be enough to buy all those books and some new equipment, not to mention presents for Sasuke and Naruto too, so the first stop for him would be Gringotts. The white building really wasn't that hard to find, it stood out against the other buildings quite easily, towering over many of the other stores.

It was as he was about to step up the stairs when he heard his name over the crowds being called, the voice being rather familiar and he blinked, looking around in time to see a distinctly familiar face running towards him, bushy brown hair flying out behind her and Harry grinned.

"Hermione-san!" he sad brightly. "Long time no see."

"Oh, Harry! I thought something awful must have happened to you," Hermione said as she scrambled up the stairs to where he was standing. "I mean, I didn't really have any way to contact you, but Ron said that he tried to send loads of letters to you but they couldn't get to you, somehow. The owl just kept coming back."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, rubbing the back of his head. _So, it wasn't just my Hogwarts letter that didn't arrive to me…_ "I'll tell you about it in a bit so I don't have to keep repeating myself. Are the others here too?"

"The Weasleys, you mean?" Hermione asked. "Ron said that they'd be coming to Diagon Alley today, so they'll probably be heading this way soon – oh, it looks like they're here now," she added, pointing over and Harry followed where she was looking.

And blinked.

And blinked again.

It almost looked like a sea of fire was walking towards him, a large group with every single person having bright red hair. After a moment, he began to recognise who was who in the forest of crimson. Ron was there, still tall and skinny, almost as tall as the twins now, still long nosed and freckled, and his hands and feet still looked a little too big for him, kind of like a puppy of a large dog did. The twins were just as he remembered them, still identical to the last freckle (and thankfully he could tell the difference because of the chakra, otherwise he'd be completely lost as to which was Fred and which was George). Their elder brother, the prefect Percy, was dressed neatly, hair combed and glasses perched on his nose. Their mother, the slightly short, plump, but kind faced Mrs Weasley walked with them, her only daughter of the group (who Harry recognised from the train station at the end of the previous term) was holding tightly to her hand. There was another person, tall and balding, but hair that he had left still just as red as the others, that Harry didn't recognised though and he assumed that this must be Mr Weasley, as he looked far too old to be another of Ron and the twin's brothers, but there was still some obvious similarities that marked him as a member of the family.

As soon as they saw him, a cry of 'Harry!' chorused from Ron and the twins as they all darted over.

"Harrykins, you've been neglecting us," Fred said as he came over, slinging a hand over his shoulder.

"Yes, you have Harrykins," George added as he slung his arm over Harry's other shoulder.

"What's been going on?" Ron asked, frowning. "Why haven't you been answering our letters? We must have wrote to you about twelve times."

"I never received any letters at all," Harry admitted, now that the Weasley's were there and Hermione too, so he could properly explain. "I didn't even get my Hogwarts letter until Grandpa Hokage actually got into contact with Dumbledore. But apparently my letters never even made it out of England for some reason. I don't get why, but he said he was going to look into it."

"That's kind of weird," Ron admitted. "I mean, that the Hogwarts letter had trouble getting to you. I thought it was Errol's fault at first-"

"Who's Errol?"

"Our owl," Fred explained. "He's ancient."

"About as useful as a feather duster sometimes," George added, nodding 'wisely'.

"It wouldn't be the first time he collapsed on a journey either," Ron agreed. "And you live all the way out in Japan. So we tried to get Percy to lend us Hermes."

"And that would be….?"

"Percy's owl," Fred said, shooting Percy, who was still out of ear-shot a sharp look. "Mom and dad bought him for Percy when he was made a prefect."

"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me," Ron sighed, frustrated, "Said he needed him."

"Percy's been acting really strange this summer as it is," George said. "And he has been sending out a lot of letters, spending loads of time in his room…come on, there's only so often you can polish a prefect badge, right?"

"So we were almost tempted to come after you in the flying car-"

"The what?" Harry gaped at the thought. He remembered the cars from his first rip to London. Fast, shiny, but rather smelly things that wouldn't do too well in the ninja countries, considering a well placed earth jutsu could disrupt any road and cause mass hold ups and such in a matter of seconds – likely the main reason they never got brought to the Elemental countries despite the fact they could get electricity and other machines there. But the idea of one of those things flying just sounded ludicrous.

"Yeah, its our dad's," Ron explained, as if the idea of a flying car was an everyday occurrence. "Dad's obsessed with anything to do with muggles. He likes to take things apart to see how they work. It drives Mum mad. Anyway, we were going to use the car, but then we realised that we didn't know where you lived and even if we did, Mum would know we were missing. I mean it would take ages to get to Japan of all places."

"It would probably take almost a day or more," Harry agreed. It was a good job they didn't try to find him, otherwise they'd probably have gotten lost.

"Speaking of Dad, you haven't met him yet have you, Harry?" Ron asked, before grabbing his arm and dragging Harry over. "Hey, Mum, Dad, look who we found."

Managing to regain his balance after he'd been pulled before the Weasley adults, Harry gave them a quick bow. "Hello, Weasley-san," he added, looking over at them with a small smile

Mrs Weasley smiled, obviously recognising him from when they had met at the train station. Ginny looked like a deer in the headlights before her face turned crimson and she ducked behind her mother's arm, brown eyes peering out at him hesitantly. At least she wasn't acting like an outright fan girl and squealing over him, but he was sure this flushing shy girl would be even more awkward to talk to. Still, he shook it off as Mrs Weasley spoke to him.

"It's nice to see you again, Harry dear. Arthur and I have been worried about you when Ron, Fred and George mentioned that you hadn't been replying to your letters. We were going to see if we could find out where you lived if you hadn't replied by Friday to come and pick you up. I'm glad that you seem to be alright."

"I'm sorry about that, there was a lot of circumstances and I don't live in England so it is a bit of a far flight for most birds unless they're used to long flights. I'll try and make sure I send Manji and Housenka over occasionally next time, they're used to long distance flights." He glanced over at the man, whom Harry assumed must be 'Arthur'. "Its nice to meet you, Weasley-san." He added, before remembering Western culture and offering his hand to shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Mr Weasley said jovially, taking the offered hand and shaking it. "Ron and the twins have told us all about you. I've heard that you're very interested in 'ninjas' and everything. It sounds fascinating. I don't suppose you can tell me what the function of a 'shoo-ree-ken' is?"

Harry almost burst out laughing at the pronunciation, but thankfully he was saved by Mrs Weasley, who didn't look impressed. "Arthur, don't badger the poor boy. He must have had a long trip here after all. Are you going to Gringotts, dear?" she added kindly to Harry.

"Yeah, first stop actually," Harry agreed.

"That's good. Why don't you come with us?" Mrs Weasley offered. "Is your guardian anywhere?"

"Oh, no, no," Harry shook his head. "I took a portkey over here for the day, so I came on my own. Its alright though, honest. I'm pretty independent." He added, seeing the almost pitying look on the woman's face and wanting to quell it before it got too out of hand. He hated pity.

"Then you should come with us. It'll be better than being alone after all," she said with a smile and Harry rubbed a hand behind his head, not really sure he could argue, but it felt so weird to have such a motherly figure worrying about him like this.

"Uh…sure?"

As it was, going with them to Gringotts wasn't too bad, though Harry felt a little sorry for Hermione's parents who were soon dragged off to the pub by an enthusiastic Arthur Weasley who was obviously going to grill them for information about Muggles. It had been a bit awkward going to his own vault after visiting the Weasley's one. Compared to what was in the Potter vault, the Weasley's one had practically nothing. It took a lot of his own self control not to demand they take some from him, merely because he knew that they wouldn't take well to pity. He knew what that was like personally after all.

Once they got everything they needed from their Vaults (and Hermione had her pound sterling changed into Wizarding money) they all separated their different ways, promising to meet up at Flourish and Blotts book store in an hours time. Harry, Hermione, Ron and the twins ended up travelling around the shops together. They made a brief detour to Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke shop where they met Lee Jordon who helped him pick out a few things that he could buy for Naruto – being fellow pranksters they would of course help another 'in need'. They eventually parted ways from Fred and George, who seemed to be talking school pranks while he, Ron and Hermione continued on. They went passed the Quiddich store where Ron drooled over a set of orange robes that put Naruto's jump suite to shame ("The Chudley Cannons are the best! Nineteenth in the league though…"-Ron). Hermione soon rushed them off to buy ink and parchment in the shop next door, which was fine by Harry – he still had a few things to get. They stopped off to buy a few more potion supplies ("Do you want to explain to Snape-sensei why you don't have enough ingredients?" – Harry) before they ended up in a junk shop where Percy was, currently immersed in a book called _Prefects who Gained Power._ It was a little bit creepy in Harry's opinion, but they let him get on with it.

Eventually they did arrive at Flourish and Blotts, only to find that more than half of the female population of the Alley seemed to be trying to get in, all squealing and giggling in a way that made Harry shudder. The reason became clear after they found the banner stretched over the windows.

_GILDEROY LOCKHART_

_Will be signing copies of his Autobiography_

_MAGICAL ME_

_Today 12:30-4:30pm_

"Huh, I don't know whether to feel sorry for this guy or think he's an idiot," Harry said as he looked over at it. "I mean, indulging the fan girls…" He shuddered.

"He's not an idiot," Hermione scoffed. "But I can't believe we actually get to meet him. I mean, he wrote the whole booklist!" she squealed

"Not you too…Ow!" Harry winced as Hermione slapped him, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

Once they had finally managed to get in, Harry just wanted to grab the books and get back out of there. This place was a death trap to his ninja senses, it was even more crowded than the train platform ever was. He had wanted to look around for interesting books to learn more magic from in his spare time, but with these crowds he just wanted to get out of the place. He'd rather use the library at Hogwarts than stick around in such a crowded place with squealing fan girls. Even if they weren't his, it didn't change the fact that the high-pitched giggling and squealing put his nerves on edge.

They managed to grab their books and join the line where the rest of the Weasley's had gathered. Mrs Weasley was patting her hair and looked a little flustered too.

Great, even Ron's mother seemed to be a fan of this guy…'All this trouble had better be worth it' was all Harry could say. And he meant the guy had to be as strong as a Kage and extremely charismatic or he was going to be annoyed. "I hope this line goes down soon," he grumbled. "I'm going to get claustrophobic at this rate." He winced as a particularly shrill squeal from behind them made his head ring. "Or deaf…" he groaned, rubbing his poor abused ears.

And then he arrived and Harry had to stop himself from hitting his head repeatedly against his book. A pretty-boy. The guy was a complete and utter pretty-boy, all blonde hair, baby blue eyes and smiling, glinting teeth that even Maito Gai could kill for in forget-me-not blue robes and a jauntily positioned hat.

To be honest, Harry was let down. From all the squealing he's been picturing some otherworldly Bishounen with rose petals that appeared from nowhere and an intense persona, with a Kage's strength. And yet here…they got a pretty-boy, yes, but it probably took him hours a day to look that pretty, and it was obvious that it wasn't naturally so.

"Ugh…can we just go already…" Harry said after the fiftieth squeal shrilly pounded at his poor innocent ears.

Meanwhile, a short, irritable looking man with a camera – why did all the camera-men that Harry saw seem so pissed off all the time? – was dancing around trying to get photos and stood on Ron's foot. Unfortunately the resulting conversation gained Lockhart's attention.

"It can't be Harry Potter!" he boomed and the room practically fell silent as everyone looked in the direction Lockhart was looking at. Not wanting the attention, Harry looked behind him as if he was just a member of the crowd too, but unfortunately the damage was already done and Lockhart practically dived in the crowd to get to Harry, only to find he had grabbed some girl's arm instead, who fainted in his arms from being touched by the famous author.

_Thank goodness for Kawarimi…_Harry couldn't help but think, trying to sneak off, but unfortunately, the crowd ended up forcing him up to the front anyway where he was practically manhandled to the stage.

"Nice big smile, Harry," Lockhart beamed at the camera flashed so often it was almost blinding. "Together you and I are worth the front pa-owwwww-ow!"

Lockhart was wincing, trying not to drop on his knees as Harry, who had been forced into shaking the man's hand for the camera, squeezed his hand so hard that he could feel the bones creaking under his fingers and the tendons straining with a grin Anko would be proud of, digging his heel into it. "Don't act so familiar with me," he hissed under his breath so only Lockhart could hear him.

If nothing else the man was persistent though after he was freed of the handshake, crushing Harry against him with a arm around his shoulders, preventing escape and if it wasn't for the cameras he would have stabbed him with a Kunai, as tempted as he was to anyway, leaving Harry scowling enough to make those in the front row shiver. He wasn't really paying that much attention, just letting every person there know how much he was displeased.

_Hopefully, this wo'nt get worse. He'll shut up soon and I'll never have to see him again._

It was only when the speech was coming to an end that he tuned into what exactly he was saying:

"…Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Harry smacked the books to his head at this point, repeatedly, deciding he really no longer cared.

"…Damn…You…Irony…"

Someone up there just loved screwing with him, didn't they?

**To Be Continued…**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_**Translation list**_

_(If there are words used that don't appear here, the word has been translated in previous chapters)_

_Kuchiyose no Jutsu – Summoning jutsu. Jutsu used to summon a contracted animal. In Harry and Anko's case, Snakes._

_Dattebayo – the suffix to sentences that Naruto says that doesn't have a direct translation. In the dub, is often translated to 'Believe it', though on Naruto Wiki, it could also be translated to 'you know' or used as a verbal exclamation point. It just sounds less annoying than 'Believe it' to me so I'll probably be using that suffix rather than his dub saying._

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_I'm really sorry for the slow update. I had some issues with this chapter. I'll admit that the second year at Hogwarts is my least favourite of the books. Why? I'm not sure. When I first read it when I was about 10 or so, I just didn't find it to be as interesting as the others and haven't read it as often as I did the others. I had also lost the second book, to my irritation, but recently located it again. My last reason for lack of updates…Guilt of Innocence. I've sort of been working on that fanfic the most lately. I actually came up with the Guilt of Innocence fanfiction idea before Uchiha Potter and I guess I just kind of got carried away due to having a lot of ideas there and fewer ideas for the second year here. However, I've decided I'll be alternating between updates from now on and focusing on Uchiha Potter, then Guilt of innocence, then back to Uchiha Potter and onwards like that. Those two stories are my most viewed stories and I don't want to let you guys down._

_Thanks so much for being patient with me._

_I've also started to use the chapter layouts similar to how I lay out the Guilt of innocence fic, so from now on, my normal rambles will be found here at the bottom of the fic. I'm also hoping to reduce the amounts of Japanese I use, unless I find it sounds appropriate. Meaning that if he's speaking Japanese normally, I'll have it written in English. If he's in England and slips into a Japanese word, I might use the Japanese then. I'll still use Ojiisan and the normal suffixes in Japanese though, just because while Harry speaks English, he still uses some Japanese suffixes. But I've re-read some of the stuff I've written in Uchiha Potter and I really did use a bit too much Japanese in the past (I might even go back and correct that some day)_

_Oh, one last thing, people have been mentioning how much Harry uses his Sharingan despite the things he said in earlier chapters. There is a reason for this. After all, Sharingan is a really helpful tool and convenient. Its human nature to do things that are convenient for them. However, in this coming year, Harry might just realise its not all that convenient when you can't really use your eyes. (Coughbasiliskcough)_

_Please Review! I still love to hear what you think._

_**Preview of the next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **__Time to return to Hogwarts and I'm honestly not looking forwards to this year. Why did that idiot Lockhart have to become a teacher? At least I can always use him for target practice. But more than that, maybe I can learn more about this Magical Kekkei Genkai too. Next time: Hogwarts: the Return. Look forwards to it!_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	15. Chapter 14: Hogwarts: The Return

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

******_Beta'd by Paradox Of Life_**

_**Important Note:**_

_This is the Beta'd version of the chapter. All thanks goes to****__ Paradox Of Life__, for correcting any of my mistakes for this chapter (and supplying me with a Sorting hat song) - Editted 20th July 2011_

_**Last Time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_Harry returned to Konoha with Anko, only to discover that his mail seemed to be not getting to him. While Sandaime looked into the situation, Harry began to learn a new Jutsu from Anko – snake summoning. With letter now in hand thanks to the Sandaime, Harry headed off to Diagon Alley, only to discover who the new Defence against the dark Arts teacher would be, much to his dismay._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire relating media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is fan fiction only and is written purely for entertainment and not meant as infringement of any rights belonging to the artist, the author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Hogwarts: The Return**

"I bet you loved that, didn't you Potter-"

"It's Uchiha," Harry snapped, really not in the mood. He had just finally managed to escape Lockhart and his vice grip, arms full of books that he was beginning to think he really didn't want, school course curriculum or not. He gave the free ones to Ginny. Honestly, he could buy his own. He didn't care if they had autographs in them or not. But of course, Harry wouldn't be allowed to just escape after that horrible ordeal. No, now he had to run into Malfoy of all things. It seemed that the holidays had somewhat lessened Malfoy's jumpiness around Harry that he had had at the end of last year, but now that meant that he just had to revert to the annoyance that he had been near the beginning of last Hogwarts year.

And he still couldn't get his name right either!

"What is it with you and not remembering three syllables," Harry added with a sigh, turning to look at the blond haired boy with a half-hearted glare in exasperation even as Hermione and Ron were finally catching up through the crowds with their own books.

Of course, it seemed that Malfoy wasn't going to just give up and call him Uchiha either. "You're name is Potter, so that's what I'm calling you." He sneered.

"Didn't we go through with this last year?" Harry asked dryly before striding forwards, lightly moving him out of the way. "If you're just here to banter, then we can do that later. I'm not in the mood. My dumbass-o-metre has already suffered enough from that _baka_back there, I don't need it to suffer more from dealing with you and these pathetic excuses for intimidation, if you can call it that, so excuse me."

"D-dumbass…Pathetic…."Malfoy managed to get out, a tiny flush of pink on his normally pale cheeks at the insult. "How dare you-"

"Now now, Draco, there's no need to sink to the level of….others here," a new voice interrupted and Harry blinked, looking around to see-

_Wow, it's a clone gone all wrong_.

Indeed the man who had just arrived looked almost identical to Malfoy, and if anything looked more arrogant. His hair was long in a way that reminded him a little of the Hyuuga and how they wore their hair, yet the colouring, like Malfoy, made him look like a sickly Yamanaka. It was a rather strange combination. Still, if Malfoy was older, Harry had the thought that Malfoy would indeed look exactly like this grown up clone. He was currently looking over mainly at Hermione, Ginny and Ron, his lip curling ever so slightly in a superior way that Harry knew well, what with coming from the Uchiha line and being friends with a Hyuuga, and Harry easily worked out who Malfoy had got his attitude from.

"Ron, Ginny, there you are. It's mad in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley."

"Lucius."

Of course, then Mr Weasley had come over and it seemed there was more bad blood between the adults than there was between their sons. Unfortunately, that just sent the situation spiraling into chaos rather quickly after Lucius had picked up one of Ginny's second-hand transfiguration books and insulted the Weasley's, and a fight broke out; not that Harry could really blame Mr Weasley as he pulled Ginny down to avoid being narrowly hit by a flying _Encyclopedia of Toadstools_. It had taken the poor shop assistants, Mrs Weasley and Hagrid, who had apparently been in the shop, though how Harry could have missed someone as big as him was anyone's guess.

Finally, Malfoy's father, complete with a darkening black eye, had thrust Ginny's transfiguration book back at her with barely concealed malice.

"Here girl – take your book. It's the best your father can give you," he snapped as he pulled himself from Hagrid's grip and stalked off, dragging his son behind him.

"What a douche," Harry snorted as he continued to help hold back Mr Weasley, who was heaving angrily and straining to go after Mr Malfoy again. After all, no need to get Ron's father into trouble. After all, unlike the ninja world, fist fights were generally looked down upon, as fun as it would have been to watch.

The rest of the trip to Diagon Alley really wasn't as eventful. Despite the fact that Harry was still grimacing over the thought of having that blond bimbo as a teacher, he thankfully didn't see the man there again – a small blessing. Fred and George said that he had been too busy trying to see if he could get the fight incorporated into the report for 'publicity' or something like that. Harry didn't care as long as it kept the guy away from him and not forcing him into having photo's taken of himself. Hell, Anko's Genin tests were less torture.

So, shopping done and a few gifts including joke things for Naruto and a 'make your own poisons' set for Sasuke – surely Sasuke would have fun making some things to improve his deadliness as a ninja – and giving promises to see everyone at the Hogwarts Express on September first, Harry activated his Portkey and headed back to Konoha once more.

"Ah, Harry-kun. How was the trip?" Sarutobi asked as Harry once he had recovered from the portkey and Harry groaned.

"Please….please don't ask. I'm trying not to relive the horror." Harry grumbled, rubbing his temples. "I need aspirin…."

Leaving the poor Hokage clueless, Harry picked up his shopping and headed back to his apartment once more. At least he had his siblings to look forward to seeing. He'd love to see how they were going to react about his presents.

As soon as he had managed to open the door, he gave a big grin and held up some of the bags.

"Hi guys!" Harry said. "I come bearing gifts!"

Sasuke, who was sitting on the armchair with a scroll across his knees and Naruto, who seemed to be trying to fix the clasp on Gama-chan as he sat cross-legged on the floor, both looked around so fast that Harry was surprised their necks didn't crack and twin smiles crossed their faces as they jumped up from what they were doing and darted over.

"Welcome back, Aniki."

"What did you get for us, Niisan? Huh, huh?"

"Patience is a virtue, Naru-chan," Harry said with a smile, but handed the bags over as Naruto cheered. "Now, do we have any aspirin? My head hurts…"

"What happened, Aniki?" Sasuke asked as he looked up from the bag that Harry passed him with a raised brow.

Harry groaned. "Don't ask…."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The few weeks after that god-awful trip to Diagon Alley was pretty uneventful. Naruto had been experimenting with the wizard's joke-kit that Harry had got for him and he'd already had fun trying out the Dr Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat Wet-Start Fireworks, while Sasuke himself had already started reading the instruction booklet to the 'brew your own poisons' kit, since he didn't want to accidentally kill himself and the rest of his small family. Harry himself had re-read some of his old notes and the like to refresh himself – not that he really needed to with most things since he had spend most of the summer using his spells when he was in a bind along with his jutsu, and had done a little more practice on summoning – his snakes were now at least five or six foot long now rather than the small snakes that he had been summoning when he first started, much to his pleasure.

Now, a day before he would be heading off to Hogwarts, Harry found himself half draped over his chair back in the apartment, his siblings at academy, faced with something of a conundrum.

Harry sighed as he looked over at the pile of books sitting on top of his Hogwarts trunk that stood innocently in the corner of the room. Last year, Harry had read through most of his books prior to going to Hogwarts, just for a bit of background knowledge and the likes, and while he had flipped through the _Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_, he had yet to touch any of the books written by Lockhart. After that little performance in Flourish and Blotts, Harry was honestly put off from the thought of even having to read something that that Bishounen wannabe had written. Still, there were stranger and more annoying people in Konoha that had the strength to back up their claims and the like so there could be likelihood that Lockhart was actually more skilled in magic than he appeared.

At least he hoped…

_Alright, I'll give it a shot. Who knows there might be something interesting in this book and if nothing else it should be good for a laugh, right?_ Harry shrugged as he reached over and picked up the top-most of the Lockhart books, _Break with a Banshee, _ignoring the moving pictures on the front and flipped it open, beginning to read.

And it was about ten minutes and several of the books later that he had tossed the whole series of Lockhart's books across the room in disgust.

As some kind of normal story book, they weren't too bad, so he could see why they were a big seller, for a fantasy novel at any rate. Lockhart certainly had a way with words. But as books for educational purposes that were supposed to be based on factual occurrences, he was willing to cry bull crap at that point. Had no one noticed the inconsistency with the so called timelines of the books? He surely couldn't have been dealing with a vampire in Transylvania while at the same time as trying to defeat a yeti in Tibet. Had he spent so much time writing the damned things that he thought he'd actually done them? He wouldn't put it past him. All that hair-spray must have killed off whatever brain cells the guy had.

"This year is going to suck," Harry couldn't help but mutter as he got up, kicking _Voyage with a Vampire_ out of the way as he did so. At least last year when they had Quirrell as a teacher they had at least got a good book to refer to if they couldn't translate his stuttered speech. But this year they didn't even have that. Maybe he could ask the Twins or Lee Jordan to let him borrow whatever books they had for the second year.

Glancing over at the scroll on the side that Anko had given him to work on, he smiled faintly and picked it up. Well, at the very least if Lockhart's lessons really ended up useless, at least he would be able to spend some time working on the summoning and some time looking up interesting spells in the library, so he guessed he could let it slide as long as Lockhart stayed away from him. _Way_away from him.

If he didn't, Harry wouldn't be able to stop himself from _accidentally_ filling him full of Kunai and Shuriken. They couldn't blame him if his hand slipped, right?

He paused, then shook his head with a wiry smile. "I've really been spending too much time with Anko-sensei." He snorted.

Looking back at the books again, he shook his head. If nothing else he could use those winking portraits of Lockhart for target practice. At least he wouldn't have wasted his money then, right? Heading back to where the books were scattered, he picked them up and kicked his trunk open, tossing them inside and slamming the top of it shut again with a sigh. He would, after all, be heading over to Hogwarts once more in only a day's time, but he didn't really feel like training just then. After all the last thing he wanted to be doing was sitting for goodness knew how long on a train covered in bruises. Besides, Anko had made herself strangely scarce…

Apparently she'd gone on a mission, at least according to Sarutobi, and wouldn't be back before Harry left. Harry wondered if she was actually on such a mission because she was just on a mission as Jonin were prone to going on, or if it was in an effort not to have to say goodbye to her student.

Well, whatever the reason, she wasn't going to be there to train him, so he guessed that he would just have to pack up his things ready to go the next day. The less packing he needed to do tomorrow, meant the more time he could spend with his brothers before he headed off for London.

_Seems like a fair trade off to me,_ Harry smiled to himself as he opened up his trunk again and headed off to gather his things.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The day that Harry was to return to finally arrived and Harry once more headed to the Hokage's office, pulling his trunk (which had wheels on the bottom now) behind him, Housenka's cage balanced on top, with his two brothers in toe. He'd long given up telling them that being late to the academy to see him off was a bad idea, but apparently, unlike last time, this time the two academy students had actually gotten permission from Iruka. He was rather pleased about it really. After all, he wouldn't be able to see his brothers for months. Still, there was one thing that made Harry curious

"How did you get Iruka-sensei to agree with this anyway?" Harry asked as they walked down the streets towards the Hokage tower. "Doesn't he normally get really pissed off for truancy?"

"Normally, yeah," Sasuke agreed. "I've seen Shikamaru get yelled at for being late because he fell asleep during break once."

"And we got yelled at the last time we showed up late seeing you off…"Naruto agreed, wincing in memory. Harry had to wonder what Iruka had done to Naruto that made him wince, but thought it was better off not knowing. After all, when he arrived back from the first year at Hogwarts, Harry was surprised he wasn't deafened from Iruka's screeching. He knew he meant well, but honestly, he was still kind of sore that Iruka chased him all over Konoha and into the Oinin's room. (He was sure his butt hadn't felt the same since.)

"So, how did you get him to agree?"

"We asked."

"Asked?" Harry blinked, surprised. "Just like that?"

"Yup!" Naruto chirruped, walking backwards so that he could beam up at his adoptive sibling with a fox-like grin and his hands tucked behind his head. "Iruka-sensei said that we'd only just do it even if he said no, so he gave us all the morning to do 'self-directed study', dattebayo!"

"Which pretty much means he gave us all a free morning," Sasuke translated.

"Huh….that was nice of him," Harry blinked. "Is he trying to make up for me getting used as target practice by Oinin in July?"

"Who knows?"

"Well, I'm glad about it anyway," Harry said with a grin, scooping both boys to him at once with another grin as Sasuke and Naruto protested. "I get to see my little brothers before I go! I'm going to miss you guys!" He could tell that Sasuke's cheeks had lit up but he stopped struggling at least, refusing to meet their eyes and he couldn't help but chuckle. He was still really shy outside of their little world, but it was nice to know that somewhere in there was still that affectionate little cousin he remembered. Naruto, however, had no image he felt the need to keep up and just laughed, hugging Harry back just as tightly.

"Well, let's get this over with, right?" Harry said, finally letting the two of them go, turning towards the tower and he shoved the doors open, pulling his things behind him once more. It was a chore to get the trunk up the stairs, but Harry made sure he mentally thought of it as training – just pulling a bit weight up the stairs. Nothing too hard right?

Thankfully, Sasuke decided to help him a bit, carrying Housenka in her cage up the stairs so that if Harry missed his footing or something the poor owl wouldn't end up crashing to the ground.

Theyeventually got to the top and giving a quick knock, Harry pushed open the door to the now familiar sight of Sarutobi's office. "Hey there, Hokage-Ojiisan," Harry said as he dragged his trunk in. "You know, you might want to invest in a lift or escalators or something. This thing's a pain to drag all the way up here."

"Harry-kun, most ninja don't even use the door," Sarutobi said dryly as he gave Harry a long look. "Why would they use escalators or lifts?"

"Because it'd be easier than dragging big trunks up the stairs?" Harry suggested helpfully. The Hokage just rolled his eyes.

"Well, I suppose you're almost ready to go then?" Sarutobi asked, taking a puff from his pipe and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much ready to go. I've got everything. I just need to say goodbye to my brothers and everything. Are they still ok to come over during winter break?"

"Albus-kun said that would be fine, yes," the Hokage confirmed. "I'd like you to keep me posted, however, if anything happens. I'd rather not have a repeat of last year if I can help it."

"You mean things becoming S-classed?" Harry asked. "Well, I'll send a message or two over if there is anything, though I think Dumbledore'll likely keep you posted anyway. But I'll do that."

"Good, good," the Hokage nodded with a smile, pulling out a scroll and passing it to Harry. "You've got five minutes so, you have enough time to say your goodbyes."

"Got it," Harry nodded, taking the scroll portkey off him and headed over to his brothers, giving them a hug once more, but at least this time Sasuke didn't seem so flustered. After all, the Hokage wasn't going to tell any fan girls about it and there were no fan girls to spot them either. "Alright then you too. Be good. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That gives us a lot of things we could do, Aniki," Sasuke pointed out and Harry paused, blinking.

"Oh yeah….it really doesn't, does it?" Harry laughed. "Well, you know what I mean. Keep an eye on each other, don't get smothered by fan girls, and don't get caught if you do do anything. Ninja never get caught after all."

"Of course, Nii-san!" Naruto said proudly. "We won't get caught."

"Good boy," Harry grinned, ruffling his blond brother's hair.

"Try not to get hurt this year, Aniki," Sasuke said, frowning faintly.

"No promises, but I'll do my best," Harry said with a smile. "You know me, I always bounce back. Anko would have killed me over the summer if I didn't," he added with a laugh. "Anyway, I'll see you in the winter holidays. We can spend Christmas together again."

"Awesome! I enjoyed Christmas, it was fun," Naruto cheered. "Ne ne, Jiijii, why can't we have Christmas holidays here in Konoha too? It's fun."

The Hokage's lips quirked. "We'll see, Naruto."

Harry chuckled as he headed back to his trunk and sat on it, gratefully taking Housenka from Sasuke. "Well, looks like it's time. See you later guys!" he said, giving a wink and a salute just before the uncomfortable feeling of his navel being hooked yanked him away from the Office, his brothers vanishing from his sight in burred colour.

If it wasn't so damned useful, he would still hate this transportation method. It was so disorientating no matter how you looked at it and, as a ninja, he really hated the disorientation. Gagging slightly from the sick feeling, hearing Housenka hooting, sounding as disgruntled as Harry had felt, but he shook it off to take a look at where the portkey had brought them.

Just like last time, the portkey had warped Harry to the Magical side of the barrier – after all, people might notice something if a person just magically appeared out of nowhere and the magical world did have laws against regular people learning about their culture. And, just like the last time he had been there, it was packed with people coming to see off their children for the new Hogwarts year. At least it wasn't as crowded as Flourish and Blotts had been, so he guessed he could live with it, though he still had to shake his head in exasperation.

_Civilians…_

Checking that Housenka was alright in her cage and not too disturbed from their latest travel via portkey, Harry dragged his trunk along behind him as he headed to the train, hoping to either find the others or find a free compartment that he could stay in until his friends joined him. Thankfully, he found a compartment near the end of the train and with a little struggling – after all, even for a ninja the trunk was still heavy and Uchiha were notorious for being built more for speed than brawn – managed to tuck his trunk away securely.

Just as he was about to shift his hitae-ate to wipe the sweat from his forehead, something cold and wet touched his bared toes of his sandals and he felt a shiver run up his spine before he looked around to see a large brown toad sitting there, looking up at him with wide, unblinking eyes. Its chest ballooned out a little as a loud croak broke from its throat.

_Wait, I recognise that toad…_

Quickly, before the thing could hop off once more, Harry scooped it up in his hand and held it up so that he could see it properly. Just in time as the door opened with a clack as someone burst through. Blinking, Harry glanced over and a wiry grin crossed his face as he realized exactly who it was. A familiar round-faced boy, cheeks a little flushed from running and panting slightly, his brown hair a little disheveled, as was his robes – somehow his tie seemed to be flung around his shoulder. Neville Longbottom was a Gryffindor, like Harry, and still reminded him a little of Naruto, and he was forever losing his pet toad.

Before Neville could open his mouth to say anything, he held out the toad to the boy and smiled. "I think this belongs to you."

"Trevor! Thanks Harry. He got away from me again…." Neville gasped thankfully, gratefully taking the creature from the Uchiha's hands. "He did this last year too…If you hadn't found him…"

"It's ok. Don't worry about it," Harry said, waving it off.

"What happened over the summer, by the way?" Neville asked shyly. "You didn't reply to any mail. I was a bit worried…" he shifted nervously and Harry realized with a start the boy thought he hadn't wanted to reply.

"I had problem with my mail," Harry explained before the other could settle on such a thought, silently vowing that if he figured out who had been screwing with his mail he was going to hit them. "No ones letters were getting through to me, not even my Hogwarts one. But Dumbledore-sensei said that he'd look into it for me. I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

"Really?" Neville blinked. "Wow, so….that's weird."

"Tell me about it," Harry sighed. "Anyway, why don't you come sit in here and you can tell me what's been going on in the summer that I missed because of the letters?"

A shy smile broke on Neville's face before he nodded and scampered off to get his things, leaving Harry to smile and shake his head. Honestly, he did remind him of a much quieter Naruto and he did genuinely like the boy, although his self-confidence was atrocious.

Once Neville had returned and Harry helped put his trunk away, they ended up chatting for a long while, mainly about Neville's summer though when asked, Harry just said he was busy with a summer school. He didn't think that going around saying that he was actually doing jobs to help his ninja carrier would go over very well after all. At least that would explain away things about why he might take a while in answering mail once they actually worked out what had been stopping his mail in the first place. After all, he had had no problems prior to that summer, all his mail he sent to his brothers while he was at Hogwarts got there fine, so he doubted it had anything to do with the genjutsu barrier that was preventing humans from knowing the ninja world's location.

But that was something to think on when his friends weren't around.

Speaking of friends, there was a rattle of the door being pushed open and Harry smiled as he realized who it was. Already dressed in Hogwarts uniform, Hermione smiled as she saw them. "Hello Harry, Neville. I'm glad you already found a compartment. The rest of the train is already full," she said as she came in. "I guess I was a bit worried that you guys wouldn't have gotten here yet."

"I guess the portkey is done a little earlier than needs be," Harry admitted. "You know, give you time to recover. Those things are really disorientating."

"I've read that they can be pretty bad over long distances," Hermione agreed as she sat down on one of the chairs. "Have you seen Ron or the rest of the Weasley's yet?"

Harry shook his head. "Nope."

"Ooh, they better hurry," Hermione said with a frown. "If they don't hurry, they'll miss the train."

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," Harry said, waving it off.

Thankfully, the Weasley's finally arrived barely on time and Ron staggered into the room panting as if he had just ran a mile. Apparently the 'traffic had been bad' and they had pretty much had to dash to get through the barrier on time. After which he promptly collapsed onto the chair, leaving Harry to roll his eyes. Honestly, Civilians just had no stamina. Still, it as a good distraction as Hermione turned to him saying that she thought they were going to miss the train and Harry sighed, relieved.

Only moments after Ron arrived, the train jerked slightly as it began to pull off, slowly picking up speed as Harry watched the train station get smaller and smaller until the station itself had vanished. They were on their way back to Hogwarts once more.

The train ride itself was actually surprisingly normal. Malfoy didn't bother them with his goons this time, but then again, this time Malfoy wasn't trying to find out who 'Harry Potter' was to befriend him. Ginny, Ron's little sister who was apparently starting her first year this year, also joined them, though she tended to blush a lot and shoot Harry glances out of the corner of her eye when she thought he wasn't looking. Harry made sure not to try and meet her gaze, lest he encourage the fan-girl aspect of her personality. They spent the majority of the time talking, Harry once again keeping to the story of a summer school – something Hermione sounded rather enthusiastic about ("You're learning muggle education in your summer? That's a really good idea! To be honest I thought you'd prefer not to study in your summer. You seemed to prefer to sleep instead of study when you were at Hogwarts last year" – Hermione. "I've got an…inspiring sensei" – Harry. "You're barmy, mate. Why would you want to do more work in your summer?" – Ron.). The Weasley twins appeared to say hello before they headed off to plan something with Lee Jordon. Other than that, the only interruptions that they had were from the kind witch with the trolley and they spent the rest of the time looking through the various assortments of food and drink, and when they started to approach Hogsmead station they changed into their robes (Ginny and Hermione heading off to the toilets to change theirs.)

It was night by the time that they had reached the train station that was situated outside of Hogwarts. Strangely enough, however, once more only Ginny and the rest of the first years were called to go along with Hagrid (who waved to Harry when he caught his eye). Everyone else second year and above were to go into carriages up to the castle. Harry wasn't surprised the first years went via the lake. Not only did you get a great view of Hogwarts before you even got there, but he was sure the average civilian ten/eleven-year old would probably be really freaked out if they saw what was actually pulling the carriages. Though none of the students that were there getting into the carriages at that time seemed to pay any mind to them.

They were strange, horse-like creatures, but seemed to look half-starved in that they seemed to look more like scaly skin stretched over bones. Bat-like wings lay against its back looking like folded leather and when it turned its head as Harry approached one, lamp like eyes turned onto him unblinkingly.

_What weird animals,_ Harry thought as he reached out and gently stroked one of the horse-like creature's nose. Despite its scary looks, it seemed to be actually kind of friendly as it pressed its nose against Harry's hand, making him smile.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione called, as she started to get into one of the carriages. "You're going to get left behind if you keep messing around."

"Hai, hai," Harry said idly as he gave the creature one last pat on the neck before he headed over and climbed into the carriage that Ron, Hermione and Neville were already sitting in. Once everyone was inside, the carriages all moved as one, the strange horses pulling them up towards the great gates that were the main entrance to Hogwarts.

Letting the other's idly chatter wash over him, Harry leaned his chin on his hand as he gazed idly out of the window as Hogwarts itself came into view and an idea struck him. Mainly it was just idle curiosity than anything else, but it was just something he didn't try last year. Sure he had been trying to reactivate his Sharingan after the events in the room with the mirror of Erised, but he never really activated the thing outside of that practice while he was still at Hogwarts, and it did make him wonder what he would see. Idly, he leaned out of the window and activated his Sharingan.

And immediately turned it off again, feeling a little dazed.

Damn, looking at Hogwarts from the outside with his Sharingan was almost blinding. He had assumed there would be colour. After all, chakra was coloured to his Sharingan and he could normally see how it flowed through a body (though not with the pinpoint accuracy that the Byakugan seemed to have. After all, Harry couldn't see the networks) and he had been expecting some kind of colour with the magic also. But to his eyes it was as if he was looking at a deep golden coloured shield that seemed to span over the entire castle, glittering and shimmering almost innocently, yet at the same time, in the darkness when he wasn't exactly expecting so much colour it was a little dazzling at first glance.

Sitting back down again, he rubbed his eyes to clear the flash-spots in them.

"Are you alright?" Neville asked.

"Oh, yeah," Harry said, blinking a few times as his sight returned to normal. "Just a fly flew into it when I was looking at the castle."

"Bad luck there, mate," Ron laughed, taking his lie as truth without question, thankfully. "But it's still really cool to see. Shame you only go on the boats in the first year."

"Yeah, guess so," Harry said with a grin, before turning his head to look back at the castle once more through the window. Well, it had still been amazing to look at either way. He wondered just what spells had been weaved to create that thing. _I wonder what Neji or one of the other Hyuuga would see if they used their Byakugan to take a look, _he wondered.

It seemed that the carriages were a much faster route than the boats were, so Harry assumed that the boats were probably a delaying tactic as well as showing off the splendor of Hogwarts to the impressionable first years. Harry followed everyone to the great hall where all the various Houses began to separate to their house tables, while Harry followed the other Gryffindors to theirs. Sitting next to Ron, with Hermione and Neville sitting across from them, Harry glanced up to look at the weird magical genjutsu on the ceiling, watching as the stars twinkled and winked up above and the occasional cloud trailing over it. Innumerable candles were hovering in mid-air over the four long tables, making the currently empty golden plates and goblets sparkle and shine.

His eyes slipped across to the head table, where the teachers were sitting, minus a chair for McGonagall, who had obviously gone to pick up the first year students at the door once Hagrid had arrived with them. Dumbledore was there and caught his eye, offering a small smile to which Harry returned with a nod. Snape was scowling. Not that that was anything new, but he was scowling more than normal. Probably because he was being forced to sit next to an aquamarine-robed Lockhart, who seemed to embody everything that Snape hated.

And Harry actually couldn't help but silently give him his sympathy. Maybe it was just because of the Diagon Alley incident, or perhaps it was the inconstant books, but Harry really, really disliked Lockhart. He was glad he wasn't the only one, even if it was the teacher who hated his guts.

It wasn't long after everyone had settled down into place that the announcement of the sorting was made and McGonagall, the stern head of Gryffindor came out, leading a line of students. The first years who seemed to be so small and pale in their black robes shuffled along the stage, looking at each other nervously. Harry could already spot Ginny – that Weasley red hair was hard to miss after all.

Once the new students were on the stage the Sorting Hat's mouth ripped open at the brim again and sung it's Sorting song, though a different one to last year's sorting Harry noticed. But like last year, it contained another warning:

_Alas! It's finally here! Every year about this time;_

_My services are needed, as it's time to draw the line._

_Surely you're all friends right now, not one of you a foe,_

_But my job is to split you up, to the houses, off you go!_

_Maybe you're a Slytherin, who's Earthly links are pure._

_If purest blood and cunning, then that is you for sure!_

_Perhaps you're a Gryffindor, your soul Fiery and brave._

_Your actions true and headstrong, then that's where you'd be laid!_

_You could be a Ravenclaw, through the Heavens soars your mind._

_If your knowledge knows no limits, then be there with your kind!_

_Then, of course, there's Hufflepuff, like Water, tried and true._

_If you accept anyone, then it's the place for you!_

_These houses are the basis, of the great Hogwarts of old._

_Divided though you may be, still a warning must be told:_

_Hark! I tell thee, heed my words, acknowledge what I know._

_That unless you abide by the rules of old, mysteries will unfold._

_The knowledge of space unrivaled; remember what I say._

_Resist the vile darkness and know what ahead is laid._

_Magic's holy spiritis purest of them all._

_Don't give up! Don't quit!_

_And the Dark will surely fall._

_Unite all four of your groups, the houses shall not sway!_

_Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, join the fray!_

_Darkness lies ahead these days,_

_The Light is now your fort!_

_I must do my task, of course,_

_So now it's time to sort!_

After the Sorting hat had sung its song – Harry wondered if it was boring being a hat with the only thing it had to look forwards to was making up a new song to sing, though he was somewhat curious as to the lyrics – the sorting began.

It was strange, when the sorting started, to watch it from the side of those sitting at the table. He didn't really pay that much attention to the names, watching as they headed to their new tables, clapping politely when they were sorted into his own house. Ron and the twins had cheered loudly when Ginny was also sorted into Gryffindor (_Crap, that'll mean that if she does really start turning into a fan girl she'll be able to stalk me all the time!_ Harry realized in horror) and after only a few more names, the scroll was rolled up and the sorting hat and stool put away once more.

Dumbledore smiled as he stood up, opening his arms wide to his students and once more, as the last few times that Harry had met him, the Uchiha suddenly found himself thinking of the Sandaime. The two of them, while not in appearance, were remarkably similar.

"Welcome! Welcome to Hogwarts to our new students, and a warm welcome back to older friends. I will not keep you, as I'm sure that everyone must be hungry and thirsty from their long journeys, so let the feast begin!"

And as suddenly as that, the feast appeared at the table and there was agasp from the newer students as their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. Harry himself ignored it though. After seeing it last year and spending an entire year here where anything was possible, and added to the fact that he was a ninja and had long since grown used to looking beyond the norm, he had adapted to it rather quickly and had soon started to check what he wanted from the table.

_Here we go again,_ Harry thought as he began to dish himself out some curry and rice. _Still a shame there's no Dango though…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It felt odd to be back in the Gryffindor dormitories. Perhaps it was because he had more or less gotten used to camping outside during some of his missions such as the time he had spent in the Forest of Death during Anko's test. Or perhaps it was because his own bed back at home was generally a simple one, whereas the beds here were four poster beds with red velvet curtains all the way around. Not that Harry complained about the curtains. It was actually a good thing to him, at least it meant that he would be able to hide a few things such as if he was dealing with cleaning his weapons and the like. He made good use of them last year too to do that.

But for now, he was lying on his back dressed in shorts and t-shirt that he used as night wear, staring up at the velvet canopy of the four poster bed in almost darkness, listening to the snores of the other Gryffindor second years, sleep avoiding him. Perhaps it had been because of the time difference between Konoha and England and he was suffering with jet lag? Or perhaps it was because he hadn't trained himself into submission like he always did when he was training with Anko? Or perhaps it was because of-

-SNORE-

Harry groaned and turned onto his side, folding the pillow around him to try and block out the noise. How on earth had he managed to sleep through that last year? Or had they all just picked up on snoring over the summer?

"I really need to learn something to make them silent…Jutsu…magic…anything..." Harry groaned, laying back on his back and moving the pillow to cover his face only to pause when he heard something else, something that sounded like creaking and he blinked. _Wait….that wasn't snoring…Actually, it sounds kind of like the curtain moving…_

Lifting the pillow from his face and peering out from under it, Harry noticed that there was a gap in the curtains, the moonlight from the widows beginning to peep through the space. And, as he looked, his eye caught sight of something moving, something trying to get on the bed and headed over, a strange shadow beginning to peer over him-

Harry reacted.

Tossing the pillow aside, Harry shot up and grabbed the thing, flipping them over so that the shadowy thing was pinned down under his hand and Harry whipped out a kunai that he had slipped under the mattress for protection, holding it at the thing's throat. "What are you doing sneaking around here?" Harry snapped, before blinking as he realized exactly who it was that he had pinned down. Or rather _what_ it was.

The creature was unlike any kind of thing that Harry had ever seen before and he had to wonder if it was some kind of small Oni or something. It was a creature that, had it been standing, would have reached about to his knees, with big, bat-like ears, a pencil-like nose and wide green eyes. It's skin was a greenish colour and it seemed to be wearing what looked like a dirty pillowcase of some kind. It didn't particularly look dangerous, its long-fingered hands covering its face as it cowered under his hand, but appearances could be deceiving after all.

"Please don't hurt Dobby, Harry Potter Sir…" the creature whimpered, its voice rather high pitched, but sounded male. "Dobby just wanted to warn Harry Potter Sir."

"Warn me?" Harry cocked an eyebrow at that. He was very tempted to growl that it was Uchiha Harry to it, but he was more interested in working out what exactly the miniature Oni was talking about. "Warn me about what?" He eyed the creature once more before he sat back on his heels, releasing creature and tucking the kunai away once more. "Who and…._what_ are you, anyway?"

Shakily, the creature got onto its hands and knees, its bulging tennis-ball eyes looking up at him. "Dobby, sir. Dobby is Dobby. Dobby the House-elf sir," the creature, now named 'Dobby' said breathlessly. "So long Dobby has wanted to meet you, sir…such an honor it is…"

"House-elf?" Harry blinked. He'd never heard of one of those before. Something to look into later. "Never mind that, what do you mean by come to warn me? Warn me about what?"

"Dobby has come to tell you, sir….it is difficult, sir, Dobby wonders where to begin…."

"The beginning usually works," Harry said helpfully. "How about you start from why you're sneaking onto the bed-" he shot it a long look. "Sorry, but I'm really not into mixed species relationships…."

"Oh, no no, Harry Potter sir, nothing like that." Dobby squeaked, waving his hands. "But Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, Sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this if I is found coming to see you, sir. But Dobby must warn Harry Potter, sir. To protect Harry Potter, even if he does have to shut his ears in an oven door. Please leave Hogwarts!"

"…What?" Harry blinked. "Why?"

"Harry Potter is in mortal danger sir."

"In danger from what?" Harry shot back, exasperated. "Seriously, I'm almost always in mortal danger. How am I supposed to know what to look for if you don't specify."

"There is a plot, Harry Potter," the House-elf whispered, bat ears twitching. "A plot to make most terrible things happen here this year." He trembled, tearful. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"

_Perhaps I shouldn't mention training with Anko or those missions then…_

"Who's plotting these things?" Harry interrupted "What terrible things?"

Dobby made a funny choking noise before he suddenly jumped up and grabbed one of the posts of the bed, ramming his head into it hard and rapidly with a thud each time and the Uchiha had to grab the thing and pull him away before it gave himself brain damage. "What the heck are you doing?" he hissed.

"Dobby can't say," the dazed House-elf whimpered. "If Dobby says, Dobby will have to punish himself."

"Alright then, just tell me what you can tell me then," Harry compromised, dropping the creature back on the bed again. _Do wizards have some kind of secrecy spell that stops him from revealing anything important…?_ "Or answer yes or no, if that's easier. Does this thing have something to do with Voldemort?"

Dobby squeaked, clapping its hands over bat like ears. "Ah! Speak not the name! Speak not the name!"

"Oh for _Kami_'s sake," Harry groaned. "Not you too." _What is it with people freaking out over such a stupid name._ "Fine. Does it have anything to do with Mouldy Shorts then."

Dobby peered up at him with those wide eyes, dropping his hands from his ears. "No, not _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named_, sir." He said, his eyes seeming to be trying to hint something, but it left him at loss.

"He hasn't got a brother has he?"

Dobby shook his head.

"A Sister? Parents?" Somehow Harry couldn't imagine that shadowy thing from last year having family, and Dobby shook his head again, eyes widening even further as if trying to hint something, but it didn't make it any clearer to him than before.

"Well, whatever it is, I can't just leave if there is some kind of trouble going on. Civilians might be in danger. Besides I'm already here-"

"No, no, no!" Dobby shook his head, looking horrified. "Harry Potter cannot! Dobby had heard of Harry Potter's generosity to others, that's why Dobby tried to stop Harry Potter from coming back before this, but Dobby doesn't know where Harry Potter lives. Dobby thought that stopping the mail from leaving England would convince Harry Potter to stay away-"

"What?" Harry snapped, jumping forwards and grabbing the front of the House-elf's pillowcase, pulling him up so its long nose touched Harry's, feeling his eyes burning with the wish to turn into Sharingan from anger. "_Teme_…You mean you were the one who was intercepting my mail? That's a criminal offence! What the heck were you thinking?" _I should kill you for that you little…!_

"Harry Potter should not be angry, sir!" Dobby squeaked. "Dobby was just doing it to protect Harry Potter sir. Please, please go back to where Harry Potter lives so you're not in any more danger, sir!"

And before Harry could do anything, the creature clocked its fingers and with a resounding '_crack_' vanished, leaving Harry grasping air.

"What the hell! You can't just-!"

"Harry?"

Harry froze, hearing a new voice and quickly crawled across to the end of the bed and opened the curtains to realize Ron was sticking his head sleepily out from his own, his hair sticking up even more than Harry's own and Harry sweat dropped at being caught yelling. "What are you doing?" Ron managed sleepily.

"Ah….._Gomen, Gomen_…"Harry managed sheepishly. "Bad dream….wont happen again."

"Mm, mm," Ron hummed, disappearing back into his own four-poster once more, his heavy breathing soon returning to the drones of snoring in the room once more.

Harry drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly before he sat back, pulling the curtains shut once more, a frown settling on his features. Well, at least he had worked out what was going on with his mail. Perhaps the thing thought that if he didn't received his letters that he would just stay in the home that Dobby didn't know about. Of course, Dobby didn't know Harry was a ninja. Still….what did Dobby mean? What mortal danger?

Unless the danger was they had that idiot Lockhart as a teacher, then he was pretty much lost. A danger that had nothing to do with Voldemort…?Didn't really give him much of a clue of what to work with. Tomorrow morning he was going to have to write a message to Sandaime to inform him about this, especially if things were going to start heating up again.

Harry snorted sardonically. "Guess things'll be interesting again this year too."

**To Be Continued…**

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_**Translation list:**_

_(If there are words used that don't appear here, the word has been translated in previous chapters)_

_Jiijii – another way of saying 'old man'_

_Oni – a Japanese demon, different from the tailed beasts though. They're generally horned creatures, like little devils_

_Bishounen – a very good looking, almost effeminate male, often seen in anime._

_**Chosha's Notes:**_

_Hoped you liked the new chapter of Uchiha Potter! Ok, I don't know if any of you are disappointed in why I didn't make up a school song for the hat to sing, but honestly, I suck at making music of any kind, and apart from the one poem I uploaded on the Rurouni Kenshin category, the best poetry I can pull is a limerick, never mind making a full song. I'd rather not make a fool of myself trying to think of a song. _

_**(Edit: On another note, my Beta for this chapter, **_**_xx-Ryou's Dancer-xx_**_** made the song for this chapter! A lot better than what I could come up with at any rate. So, all credit for the song goes to **_**_xx-Ryou's Dancer-xx_**_**. Thank you!)**_

_On the subject of Dobby, well, Like in the first year, Harry had been portkey'ed to the Wizard side of the barrier, so Harry missed the whole 'shut him out to stop him going to Hogwarts', so this is why I had this happen instead. I hope that I managed to make it somewhat realistic. Some people thought that the reason Harry couldn't get his letters was because of the barriers around the ninja world. However, that would contradict the fact that all through the first book he was able to contact his brothers, which puts that theory in the bin. As it is, though, I'm assuming Dobby could use House-elf magic to recall Harry's letters before they left the country in this case. I did hint, after all, that none of Harry's letters had even left England, not that they reached the barrier around the ninja lands, turned around and gone back to the UK after all._

_A lot of people asked me about the Owl training. To be honest, I didn't think anyone would be that interested but I guess I was wrong. Lol. To be honest, I don't know how to train any kind of bird. I've never even had a parrot or budgie or whatever as a pet. However, Magical world Owls seem at least semi-sentient. After all, Hedwig had some rather human reactions and even attacked Hermione and Ron on Harry's orders in the fifth book. So, Harry probably told them to attack anyone who wasn't the recipient to the mail. He probably taught them dodging techniques as well, either using the Nimbus, or by throwing things, but one it sounded stupid to write and two, I didn't want to be accused of animal abuse or something, or told that there is actually a way to teach birds this kind of thing. Thus I left it out, and you can use your imaginations. _

_By the way, I want to give a special thanks to __**Blinded in a bolthole**__, a reviewer of mine who has given me tons of ideas to work with. Thank you so much! It's been a great help, especially since I was at a loss as to what to do on later chapters. It's been a great help!_

_Please review! Reviews help me out more than you know. And I'm still open to suggestions if anyone wants to have their input in the story._

_**Next time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_**Harry:**__ You have got to be kidding me! Someone, anyone just kill me. Anything's better than dealing with Lockhart…Wait….what's that voice? I didn't mean I wanted to be killed literally. Is this what Dobby was talking about? Next time on Uchiha Potter: Chamber of secrets – First Seal: Teisei. See you there!_

_(Teisei = Whispers)_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	16. Chapter 15: Chamber of Secrets: 1st Seal

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

**Beta'd by Paradox Of Life**

_**Last Time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_Harry returned to Konoha from Diagon Alley to prepare to return to Hogwarts and reunited with his Wizard friends. However, later on that night, a mysterious creature, Dobby, the House elf, appeared, warning Harry of an impending danger that is going to come to Hogwarts, leaving Harry with a mystery of what it is, and when this danger will come._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire relating media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Harry potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is fan fiction only and is written purely for entertainment and not meant as infringement of any rights belonging to the artist, the author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Chamber of Secrets - First Seal: Teisei**

_If whatever danger that's supposed to be here could strike him down first, then I'll be extremely grateful. Just, please, someone, get rid of that guy already!_

And what, pray-tell, was the current bane of his existence?

Gilderoy Lockhart

The day had started so well as well enough. Though there was a little detour where Harry had sent Housenka off with his letter about the warning he had been given to the Hokage before the others had gotten up, they had gone to breakfast and got their new timetables. They had Herbology first in the greenhouses where they had been re-potting Mandrakes – strange looking plants that had amazing restorative properties that Harry had been extremely interested in. He had to wonder if Mandrakes would be good in any creams to help with burns, or for wound healing, because if it was it would certainly be a good idea to stock up on some, especially for a ninja career. It was apparently good in antidotes too and he made it a mission for himself to ask Professor Sprout where one could procure Mandrakes from and how to take care of them because they would certainly be extremely useful in his line of work – especially since he had to survive Anko. While he had been getting on a lot better with his teacher before he left, he still wouldn't have put it passed Anko to accidentally poison him with her Sen'eijashu again.

They were strange little things, the Mandrakes. The roots themselves seemed to take the shape of grotesque looking, mud covered babies that screamed so shrilly that apparently when a Mandrake was fully grown could even kill anyone who heard it, though the saplings they were currently dealing with would only knock the person who heard the cries into unconsciousness. Though Professor Sprout did say she preferred for them all to be conscious for the rest of their first day.

So, with gloves on and ear-muffs in place they began to re-pot them, doing their best to read everybody's lips if they tried to say something that couldn't be heard over the earmuffs. Harry had no problem with it – it was a ninja skill after all so that one could discover information on missions, but he gave up trying to communicate with the others since they were hopeless at it.

After the class and a lot of talking about the Mandrakes to the slightly amused Professor (who had helpfully directed him to a book on plant care and responsible handling of magical plants), they had gone to Transfiguration where they were turning a beetle into a button. Harry thought that was a rather useless skill. Would it not be better to turn buttons into beetles? It would be such a good diversionary tactic. Still, it was good for one thing – testing out if his Sharingan could copy magic-spells in the same way that it could jutsu. The concept seemed the same, roughly at least, only changing hand-seals for wand movements and chakra for magic.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Harry had waited a little while, not really trying that much with his spell work until McGonagall had walked close by and he caught her attention. "Ah, Sensei?" he said, "Do you think you could just show me the wand movements again? I'm not sure I got the motions right."

McGonagall raised her eyebrow, but came over anyway. "What seems to be the problem, Mr Po-Uchiha," McGonagall corrected herself and Harry inwardly smiled that she had recalled his preference of names to answer to.

"I think I just don't have the hang of the movement," Harry said, giving the wand a flick, but it didn't do much. Mainly because Harry purposely didn't pay attention, least someone was looking over at him during the original demonstration and caught sight of his Sharingan. "If you could just show me one more time, I think I could get it."

"Alright then, Mr Uchiha, but this is the last time," McGonagall said as she turned to the beetle on the table. Immediately, making it look like he was just checking properly, his bangs therefore shadowing his eyes, he activated the Sharingan and watched closely as the Transfiguration professor gave a flick of her wand, murmuring the spell and the beetle became a button. Before she reversed it for Harry to try. "Do you have it now?"

Harry blinked the Sharingan out of his eyes, a smile crossing his face as he gave it to her. "Hai. I think I have it now. Like this?" he asked as he did the same motions that McGonagall did, transforming the beetle into a button perfectly.

"Yes, that's right. Very good, Mr Uchiha." She said, giving a nod of approval before continuing on to the other groups to see how they were doing.

Ron stared at the perfectly transformed button on the table. "Bloody hell," he managed. "How did you manage to get it perfect that fast when you couldn't do it at all before?"

"Hm…Guess I just have a good eye for details, Ron-kun," Harry said back dryly as he sat back in his chair, smiling faintly. It seemed that he was right that he could copy things in a similar manner to copying a jutsu. That would certainly make things a bit easier if he decided to look into the library for some more useful spells. Well, useful as a Ninja at any rate.

Despite the great start to the day, however, only lasted until lunch, as after that, things began to spiral downhill from there.

It began with a stalker.

Now, Harry was no stranger to stalkers. He was a ninja and in training one had to become aware of your surroundings lest you had another ninja tailing you and, in the academy, you were generally taught to avoid it. But his main practice came, not from the academy teachings, but rather from fan girls. While his 'fan following' was not as big as, say, Sasuke's, who seemed to have every single girl in his year group apart from perhaps one pining after him – Harry could only guess that it was the whole dark brooding tone that he had when he wasn't with his family – he did have a fair few girls that had been in his own year group that had become a little on the obsessive side and had followed him around almost everywhere for the chance to 'catch his eye'.

But of all the stalkerish fans that he ever had, it was the first time he had a _boy_ stalking him.

A boy with a camera no less.

And if Harry didn't know any better he would have thought the boy had ninja training because the boy was literally everywhere, trotting along eagerly after him with his camera like a love-struck girl, trying to get pictures of him. Pictures he wanted Harry to s_ign_ no less.

"Signed photos? You're giving out signed photo's, Potter?" Harry couldn't help but rub his temples. As if he didn't have enough to deal with but now Malfoy was here too? And the idiot still hadn't gotten used to his name.

"It's Uchiha…" Harry growled.

Malfoy ignored him though as he turned away from Harry and yelled, "Everyone queue up! Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"

He never thought that he would actually need to thank Malfoy either. Obviously he had been coming to cause trouble, announcing that Harry was giving out signed photos, but it didn't mean the Uchiha wouldn't use it to his advantage. Harry used the distraction caused by Malfoy's shouting to put his ninja skills to use and vanish.

"Hey, wait…Where'd he go?"

"Are you seeing things Malfoy?"

"He was right there!"

"Harry, come back, I still didn't get the photo!"

"What's this I hear about signed photos? You should have just asked! I'll be happy to sign a photograph for you!"

Harry, who was currently clinging with chakra to the ceiling, couldn't actually believe that it actually worked. After all, all anyone would have had to do was look up. Still, he guessed he had to be thankful for civilians being stupid and oblivious. But he did have to slap his hand to his face when Lockhart had turned up. Of course he'd want the attention. Well, at least it got the attention off him and his disappearance as he quickly headed off to the classroom via the ceiling and, when no one was looking, jumped down again and headed inside so that he could give himself a good enough alibi that he had just used the crowds to get away and escaped into the classroom.

Unfortunately, the bad afternoon only got worse.

The next class was Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Now in theory, this class should have been one of his favourites. At least it was mainly because the spells that he thought were the most useful for a ninja combat were in this class. Unfortunately, teacher wise, he'd never had much luck at all. Last year it was Quirrell, who, when he wasn't stuttering was trying to kill him, and this year, it was Lockhart, with his inconsistent books, his smile that gave Maito Gai a run for his money and his ego that was bigger than all of the Hyuuga and Uchiha put together.

And no he wasn't bitter from that meeting in Diagon Alley!

…Well, at least the room didn't smell like garlic any more.

"Where did you go?" Ron asked, a little surprised. "You just sort of….vanished."

"Just used Malfoy's distraction to duck through the crowds," Harry shrugged. "I don't really like photos and I'd really rather not sign them either." He huffed, crossing his arms on the table with a frown.

"You better hope that Colin Creevey doesn't meet Ginny, especially when she wouldn't shut up about you all summer," Ron said. "Otherwise they'll be making an Harry Potter fan club."

"A what now?" Harry choked, almost falling off the chair in shock. No. No way. He wasn't going to deal with fan girls (boys too, he couldn't help but remind himself with a shudder) here at Hogwarts. He already had enough of that back home.

Ron just burst out laughing at his dark haired friend and, annoyed, Harry swatted him over the head, feeling his eyebrow ticking. _Wizards…_

When the whole class was seated, Lockhart himself finally arrived and cleared his throat loudly, the room falling silent but for the faint sighing of the girls of the class, all looking at Lockhart dreamily and Harry shook his head.

Honestly. Why were most of the girls in this class air heads? Well, most of them. At least Hermione had more sense.

He turned to look at Hermione, only to gape in horror when he noticed she was also looking at him with extra attention and a hint of that dorky expression. And when he glanced at her timetable, he realised that all of Lockhart's lessons were outlined in little hearts. _No way! Not you too! _

_Lockhart you…you…you turned her into a Fan Girl!_

_You've gone too far, Mister!_

Seeing he had the classes attention, Lockhart picked up one of his own books that was sitting on Neville's desk and grinned that smile, complete with shining glint that was copied by the portrait on the front of the book.

"Me," he said cheerfully, pointing at the picture and giving a wink that caused the girls to sigh in that dreamy manner and Harry to want to bash his head on the table. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, third class, honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and-"

Harry couldn't be bothered to listen to any more of the rambling and crossed his arms, leaning his head against it and thought of ways that Anko would torture such a guy. He could already feel his IQ dropping listening to that guy. At least with Anko he knew if she bragged she at least had the power to prove it, not to mention she would kick him from one end of Konoha to the other if he didn't pay attention to her.

When he finally stopped bragging, Harry raised his head from his arms to blink at the test that lay in front of them. Apparently to 'see how well they read the books'. Harry blinked. Oh. He actually only read a couple of pages of each before he tossed them to one side. Oops.

"You have thirty minutes. Start…now!"

Harry looked down at the papers on his desk to see exactly what kind of questions he would be dealing with. He could always copy the answers this one time, if the test was really important, and he had read a lot on the Defence Against the Dark Arts that he could probably fluke his way through. Pulling the paper to him, he scanned over the questions:

_1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?_

_2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret Ambition?_

_3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

_4. What-_

_Oh who cares already!_

Harry had thought maybe this test would be useful. Maybe it would actually make some use of Defence Against the Dark Arts, but this thing? This couldn't even really be called a test! This was a case of 'how far can you build my ego by looking for all these useless bits of information on me'. The test was three pages long and the entire thing was about Gilderoy Lockhart and nothing to do with Defence Against the Dark Arts at all.

And he had had enough. First he screwed with him at Diagon Alley, then made him buy books that were practically useless, and now he wanted him to answer questions that no self respecting person would want fans to know – half of these questions sounded stalker-ish. It was humiliating!

Harry rested his hands on the table, eyes closed and eyebrow ticking and stood up, the scratching of his chair on the floor catching people's attention.

"Oh, Mr Potter, do you have a question about the te- Hey, where are you going?" Lockhart, who had been smiling before, looked utterly thrown off when Harry grabbed his bag and had already headed toward the door with people staring at him. Resting his hand on the doorframe, he looked around with a strongest Uchiha Glare that he could muster. "I'm going to go and find a place I can actually _learn_ Defence Against the Dark Arts before my brain turns to mush," Harry shot back snidely. "_Ja ne_," he added, opening the door and stalking out, leaving the entire class gaping and Lockhart stuttering behind him.

Now to actually do something useful with his time. Like practicing the summoning or looking for interesting spells or information about his snake-language kekkei Genkai in the library. Or sleeping. Either way, at least he'd learn something interesting and useful then.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry's abrupt exit had ended up a mixed blessing. While he would never regret walking out of the class it did seem to bring about more trouble than it was worth. Many of the male students seemed to find the entire thing awe inspiring. The Harry (Uchiha!) Potter had actually walked out of The Gilderoy Lockhart's class! The Weasley twins had congratulated him that even they usually didn't get into trouble on their first day of the school year and had patted his head and tearfully exclaimed how proud of him they were. Ron seemed mixed between trying not to laugh and nervously looking around at the ominous aura that seemed to be coming from a lot of the female students (read Lockhart Fan Girls), who seemed to be a mix of annoyed and angry that anyone would disrespect Gilderoy Lockhart, but also, at least amongst some of the more lenient ones, partly amused, mainly because it was Harry, whom they had gotten used to seeing weird things from like last year when he slept through dozens of classes and still got top marks, or his first Quidditch match, or the showdown with Quirrell that somehow got out to the whole school – though Harry still had no idea how that had gotten out to the whole school so quickly.

Of course, Harry had to take some time recovering from the ringing in his ears after Hermione had ranted for about an hour about him doing such a thing.

Still, the ringing in his ears was worth it.

And it turned out that it seemed Harry had had the right idea about walking out of the class. Apparently Lockhart had let loose a cage of 'freshly caught Cornish Pixies', then couldn't deal with them and pretty much abandoned the classroom.

"Wow, I regret leaving now alright," Harry said dryly, giving Hermione a long look after Ron had revealed that when they were all sitting in the great hall later that day, sarcasm evident in his voice. "The competency of his teaching style is just _amazing_."

"Oh shut up, Harry, it wasn't like that at all," Hermione scoffed, though her cheeks had turned rather pink either way. "He…He just wanted to give us hands on experience."

"Hands on?" Ron exclaimed. "Hermione, he didn't know what he was doing! I think Harry had the right idea walking out when he did."

"Rubbish," Hermione scoffed. "You've read his books – look at all the amazing things that he's done…"

"You know, Hermione-san," Harry drawled, resting his chin on his hand as he drummed his fingers on the table. "For one of the smartest girls in our year…you can be remarkably stupid."

"He was probably just having an off day!"

"Riiiiight…"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry didn't mind practice. Normally he got up early anyway to practice his various jutsu and run through Taijutsu so that he wouldn't lose his touch away from Konoha. But he was somewhat irritated when he had woken up to go to practice at that clearing near the edge of the Forbidden Forest only to get dragged off by an overly enthusiastic Oliver Wood who was only interested in Quidditch practice. While flying was fun and he didn't mind the game, Harry was in no way shape or form the maniac that Wood was. Thus, he sat through the 'pep-talk' prior to practice, shooting death glares at Wood, who was so into his pep-talk that it seemed he couldn't feel the killing intent coming off Harry.

Unfortunately the others weren't so lucky and spent the entire thing edging on their seats away from what they thought was a sleep-deprived Harry.

Still, things did seem to get interesting once they got to the pitch, only to find the Slytherin team already there. While Wood ranted on how he already booked the pitch, the rest of the team read the note that a smug looking Flint held out to them.

_I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field, owing to the need to train their new Seeker_

"You've got a new Seeker? Where?" Wood said, finally managing to pause in his rants long enough to hear about the note himself.

On cue, said new Seeker stepped forwards. Blond hair slicked back, smug look on his rodent-like face, complete with new brooms 'donated by his father'-

"Oh, never mind then, we wont need to practice at all if that's who they've got as a seeker," Harry said with a yawn, turning to leave.

"What's that supposed to mean, Potter?" Malfoy growled, eyes narrowing even as Ron and Hermione began to move from the stands to headed over to the Gryffindor team's side, obviously noticing the confrontation.

"Well, you can barely remember a name," Harry said dryly, glancing over again. "How are you supposed to remember how to play a game or ride one of those things if you can't even do that."

"Want to say that to my face you little-"

Harry was in his face before Malfoy could finish the sentence, eyes narrowed and an Anko-esk grin on his face and the blond Slytherin faltered. "I just _did_."

"What's going on?" a voice called out, cutting off whatever Malfoy was going to say and Harry sighed moving away again and ran his hand through his hair as he looked around to see that Ron and Hermione had finally caught up. "Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?"

"He's apparently trying to be the Seeker for Slytherin," Harry said, jutting his thumb at Malfoy, who seemed to fume even more.

"You shouldn't be too cocky about that," Malfoy said finally. "With the new brooms that my Father has bought for our team. Maybe you should invest in getting some new brooms too. I bet museums would bid for them." The Slytherin team laughed at that and Malfoy continued with a smirk. "They'd stand no chance against the Nimbus Two Thousand and One's. Our brooms'll sweep those Cleansweep Fives of your team's right off the pitch."

"I bet sweeping is all they'll do for someone like you anyway," Harry yawned, throwing Malfoy off his stride and the Gryffindor team chuckled at that themselves.

"Well at least none of the Gryffindor team had to buy there way onto the team," Hermione agreed. "They got in on pure talent."

"Who asked you, you filthy little Mudblood!" Malfoy snarled.

Now Harry didn't need to know everything about the Wizarding world to know an insult when he heard one. When he had thought of Muggle-borns and 'Purebloods' back in first year it had reminded him a lot of those from long ninja lines such as the Uchiha and the Hyuuga etc as opposed to those who had become ninja from a civilian line. And he knew what kind of situations happened from that when they came up in playground arguments back in the academy. While Harry could be flippant and prone to pranking and the like he was mature enough not to have to fall into name calling of all things.

Still, Hermione was his friend too and Harry was notorious for defending friends and family back in Konoha.

Of course, punching Malfoy out across the pitch was a great stress reliever.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry had known that his walking out of Lockhart's class and punching out Malfoy wouldn't go without punishment, but Harry didn't regret it at all. After all, an Uchiha never did anything half-heartedly. So it wasn't much of a surprise when later on that day he was told he would be having a detention with Lockhart himself.

He shrugged, not thinking much on it. After all, it wasn't like it was Anko who could and would have proceeded to beat his ass from one side of Konoha to the other if he did something like that. What could Lockhart do anyway, beat him up with his Fire Country-sized ego?

Unfortunately, it was worse than that.

Fan mail. Lockhart's fan mail. Bags of Lockhart's fan mail. Fan mail that he had now had to help answer.

_Kill me…Anything to put me out of my misery…_Harry thought desperately as he ran his hands through his hair, making his hair even more messy from pure frustration, desperately wondering if this is the kind of torture that the interrogation ninja used back in Konoha. _Just please just kill me…_

"_Come…come to me…let me rip you…let me tear you…let me kill you…"_

_Well that's not quite what I had in mind, but….wait what?_

Harry's head whipped up, looking around. That voice, icy cold and venomous, seemed to have come from nowhere, and even as he looked around, even using his Sharingan, Harry couldn't see at all where it had come from, even though the undertone of the voice seemed tantalisingly familiar.

"What's wrong there, Harry?" Lockhart, who had been going on and on about his books, fans, records and fame was at least brought to a stop by Harry's movement. "Oh, Great Scott, look at the time! We've been here for nearly four hours! I'd never have believed it – the time's flown, hasn't it?"

"Uh huh, yeah, whatever, can I go now?" Harry asked distractedly. He couldn't hear the voice any more. Had he fallen asleep or something dealing with all this? Well, it was possible, but…the memory of what Dobby had said to him still tingled in the back of his mind. Was this the beginning of the 'Terrible Danger' the House-elf had warned him about…?

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was a while before Harry had managed to get a reply back from Sandaime, not that it had given him much to work on other than to keep an eye out on the situation and keep him informed, and to make sure to watch out for Dobby in case he tried anything again.

He hadn't mentioned the voice just yet, however. After all, it was quite possible that he had just fallen asleep from all the mind-numbing things he had to do during the detention, but he made a mental note of it anyway. After all, it could be an important detail. But as the days went by, and he didn't hear the voice again, Harry began to think it had just been a figment of his imagination trying to save him from getting his brain melted from dealing with Lockhart. And soon, Harry shrugged it off. Maybe he had just been letting that weird creature's warning get to him or something.

Harry found himself rather busy as the month went on. In his spare time, Harry was able to sneak off into the clearing in the forest to try out his summoning, though his spare time was often significantly cut by Wood, who was desperate to win against the Slytherins, Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones or not (the Weasley Twins had done some spying and reported that the Slytherin's brooms made them look like nothing more than green streaks in the air and thus, Wood thought more practice might help them to outmanoeuvre the Slytherin's speed). He had them out on the pitch rain or shine – and mostly rain. Harry was surprised he hadn't fallen down with a cold yet. As it was, Hermione would bring a pepper up potion when the Quidditch training left everyone soaked to the bone. More often than not, Harry had to use his ninja skills to avoid getting spotted by Filch since so many of the practices lately had them returning to the castle covered in mud and Filch was prone to giving out detentions if a spot of mud managed to get on Hogwart's clean floors.

However, Harry managed to give himself more spare time by leaving a Shadow Clone to deal with most of Lockhart's so called classes while he himself would head off to the library to look up information on new spells or on any information on magical bloodlines. He had considered asking Hermione, Ron or Neville about the bloodlines, but decided against it. After all, it might have raised unwanted questions or questions he knew he just couldn't answer. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to find anything useful on the snake talking ability, though he did find a lot of useful spells, which he couldn't really complain about.

Before he knew it, Halloween had come around and everyone was in pretty high spirits. After all, Halloween meant a feast in the great hall, though Harry couldn't help but remember it was on this day last year that Quirrell had let a Troll into the castle. Still, they had gone to the feast, even eaten their fill and were ready to head back to their rooms. What were the odds that something like that was going to happen again on the same day?

"…_Rip…tear…kill…"_

_I really have to learn to shut my big mouth…_

Not realising the odd looks that Hermione and Ron had given to each other when Harry had frozen, steadying himself against the wall as he looked around, trying to figure out where the voice had been coming from. It was that same voice he had heard in Lockhart's room.

Obviously it hadn't been a figment of his imagination then.

"Harry," Hermione started, looking concerned. "What are you-?"

"Shhh a minute," Harry ordered, putting a finger up close to Hermione's mouth to quieten her, straining his ears. "Can you hear it?"

"…_So hungry…for so long…" _It sounded so eager…and it was…moving upwards?

"That way," Harry said, quickly heading off in the direction of the stairs. It was the only way he could think of that could get you up in this place unless you could use chakra and, from what he had seen, he was the only person who could tap into chakra in this entire castle. He could hear Ron and Hermione hurrying after him even as he took the stairs two at a time.

"…_Kill…time to kill…"_

"Harry, what are we-?"

"_Urusai_!" Harry snarled, not noticing that in his deep concentration that he had slipped back into Japanese.

"_I smell blood…I SMELL BLOOD!"_

Harry felt his heart lurch at the thought and sped up, almost leaving his friends behind at this point. The voice…it was going to kill someone. If he could, he had to stop it. The people in this school apart from himself were all civilian children, even if they were wizards. Civilians schools weren't supposed to get murdered-

He came skidding to a stop, his breath coming out in small gasps from his sprint up several flights of stairs, his breath hitching when he caught sight of what was before him.

He heard gasping coming from behind him, and was sure that Ron had been trying to say something, but was interrupted by a horrified gasp from Hermione. Harry ignored them, however, stepping forwards, feeling the water that had created a large pool sloshing around his sandaled feet. A cat – which he recognised as Mrs Norris – hung from the torch bracket by its tail, its eyes wide and staring as if seeing something utterly horrifying. Giant words were painted on the wall in blood red letters:

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

_This…is this what Dobby had been talking about…?_ Harry thought, his face becoming stony as he read the blood-like text on the wall._ The Chamber of Secrets…what is the Chamber of Secrets?_

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs broke him from his thoughts and he quickly grabbed Ron and Hermione and dragged them around the opposite corner. If they got seen here like this, they would definitely get blamed and Harry honestly didn't feel like trying to explain away something like this. It wasn't like a prank after all. This looked pretty damned serious.

The students reached the top of the stairs and all the clutter and hustle and bustle died instantly as they saw what was there. A silent mass moving forwards to see what was going on.

And a voice rang out into the silence.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

Of course, Draco Malfoy was there, his usually bloodless face flushed with what looked like excitement and Harry had to slap his hand over Ron's mouth before the boy gave them away.

"What's going on here! What's going on!"

Teachers were starting to arrive now, Filch in the lead and when he saw the cat hanging from the torch bracket he screeched, nails digging into his cheek in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs Norris?"

Dumbledore arrived as Filch steadied himself against the wall, eyes popping as he looked accusingly over at the student body, as if trying to find who could possibly have done such a thing.

"Everyone, please return to the dormitories immediately", Dumbledore said. Students complained, but the prefects did as told, shooing the students away. When they were all moving away, the elderly wizard had gently taken the cat down, inspecting it carefully as Lockhart began to list off spells that 'had definitely killed her'.

"She's not dead, Angus," Dumbledore said as he straightened up. "She's been Petrified. Though how I cannot say…"

"One of them must have done it!" Filch shrieked, pointing at the student body, his face blotchy with tears.

"No student could have done this," Dumbledore interrupted firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced-"

"My cat has been petrified!" Filch snapped. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Dumbledore said patiently. "Madam Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they reach their full size, I'll have a potion made which will revive Mrs Norris."

"I'll make it!" Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hundred times, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep-"

"Excuse me," Snake interrupted icily, "But I believe I am the Potions Master in this school."

Harry would have grinned if it wasn't such a serious situation. Perhaps Snape wasn't that bad after all. Still, what about that voice that he had heard? His smile faded from his face, replaced by a frown as everyone finally began to be shooed away so the teachers could deal with the problem. And what was the Chamber of Secrets anyway? What about it could cause Petrification, and why would they go after the Janitor's cat?

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Unfortunately, the days afterwards seemed to make it difficult to find out anything about the chamber. It was highly irritating. Hermione didn't have her Hogwarts: A History book because Lockhart's books took up too much room – once more Lockhart being the fault, the idiotic Bishounen wannabe – and all the copies of it in the library had been taken out because of the many students all asking the same thing – just what is the Chamber of Secrets?

Thankfully, in History of Magic, they got their answer. Who knew you could bother the Ghost Teacher into telling you the legend?

And for the first time in the history of Binns' history lessons, the entire class hung onto his every word.

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago – the precise date uncertain – by four of the greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school houses were named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, away from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people and wizards suffered much persecution.

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bring them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school." Harry leaned forward, sensing he was about to get to the good part.

"The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic." Professor Binn's finished, looking annoyed and wanting to get back to his lesson.

Hermione's hand was back in the air.

"Sir? What exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber'?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control." Professor Binns said offhandedly, before seemingly realising the unease that his words caused. "I tell you, the thing does not exist," the professor added stiffly, shuffling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

Students protested, with (perfectly logical, in Harry's opinion) arguments on why no one had found the Chamber but Professor Binns was done, stubbornly refusing to talk more on something 'that was mere legend'. Getting back to his lesson, Harry's thoughts drifted to the legend.

_Could that voice be the 'horror within'? I wonder, what the hell is going on? _Harry thought distantly, expertly tuning out Binns' lecture. _And it's linked to Slytherin…who's symbol is a snake…No one else seemed to hear the voice. Could the monster be a snake of some kind? It makes sense if only I can hear the voice, because I don't think just anyone else can hear a snake's voice…But…_ He thought back to the petrified form of Mrs Norris. _What kind of snake can do something like that?…Well, whatever it is, the main problem we have here is figuring out who this 'Heir of Slytherin' actually is…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"You think Malfoy's the Heir of Slytherin?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"You heard him: 'You'll be next Mudbloods!'" Ron said, seemingly already fixated on the idea. "Come on, you only had to look at that foul rat face to know it was him."

"Ron-kun, need I remind you the last time you guys jumped to conclusions you thought Snape-sensei was stealing the Philosopher's stone," Harry reminded them. Ron had the decency to flush slightly at that.

"That was different," Ron sniffed. "I'm sure of it this time! Look at his family. The lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's decedents. His father's definitely evil enough. They could've had the key to the chamber of secrets for centuries, handing it down, father to son."

"I doubt Malfoy's smart or strong enough to do something like this," Harry shrugged. Honestly, Harry had scared Malfoy really easily tons of times before. He seemed like a lot of hot air to Harry. "Not to mention that not even family members go into the same house. Look at Padma-san and Parvati-san. But either way, he might know something about it," he admitted, remembering Malfoy's excited face when he had spoken out about the words on the wall.

"That's true," Hermione said thoughtfully. "But how to find out…"

"Ask him?" Harry shrugged. After all, he could henge into someone that Malfoy might talk to about that kind of thing, but broke from his thoughts, blinking as the others stared at him. "What? Isn't that how you get information out of people, or does it work differently outside of Japan?" he asked 'innocently'.

"Be serious, Harry. I doubt that he would just come out and say it to us," Hermione said, before biting her lip. "There is a way though, but it'll be difficult…and dangerous…and we'd be breaking about fifty school rules."

"Well, what's the idea you have then?"

"We could use Polyjuice Potion," Hermione said.

"Isn't that the potion that can make you look like someone else?" Harry asked, frowning. Snape had mentioned that in a class recently, though it was mostly in passing.

Hermione shot him an approving smile. "Yes, that's the one! I'm glad I wasn't the only one paying attention," she added, giving Ron a side glance.

"Hey! I have better things to do in Potions than listen to Snape!" However, Hermione ignored him to continue.

"For Ron's sake ("Hey!") the Polyjuice potion transforms you into someone else," Hermione explained. "Think about it! We could change into three Slytherins. No one else would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him."

_Huh, I never realised before, but Hermione could probably make a good ninja if she only trained. And didn't mind the thought of what ninja actually do in higher ranks,_ Harry thought, rather approvingly. _The potion sounds a bit like a henge too. _"How long does that last though?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, imagine being stuck looking like Slytherins the rest of our lives?" Ron added, sticking his tongue out at the thought.

"It wears off after a while," Hermione waved it off. "But getting the recipe'll be very difficult. Snape said that it was in book called _Moste Potente Potions _and it's bound to be in the restricted section of the library. And we need a teacher's permission to look at those."

"Not to mention we need to know where the Slytherin common room entrance is, the passwords, how the people who we're supposed to turn into act…" Harry added, ticking things off on their fingers. "But I suppose we should get that book first." _Though I suppose henge might be a lot easier, but if I do that alone it might bring up too many questions as to how exactly I got the information in the first place. Damn, it sucks being unable to just use my ninja skills without having to think of the poor fragile little wizard's minds…_

"Hard to say why we'd want the book really if we weren't going to try out one of the potions," Ron sighed.

"I think that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory we might stand a chance…." Hermione said doubtfully.

"Oh come on! No teacher's going to fall for that," Ron scoffed. "They'd have to be really thick…"

Harry grinned. "Good luck we have a thick teacher then."

Ron blinked, then caught on and grinned in a manner the Weasley Twins would have been proud of.

Hermione, surprisingly, decided at that moment to become woefully dumb. "Who?

Harry face-palmed.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"How thick can you get!" Ron said as they left Defence against the Dark Arts, complete with signature for the book in the restricted section. All it took was a few nice words about his book and the man signed the paper happily, though Harry had to sit with a fixed smile as Lockhart tried to make it seem he could play Quidditch. If that guy could actually play Quidditch then Harry would quit being a ninja. "He didn't even look at the book we wanted. What a brainless git."

"He is not a brainless git," Hermione scolded as they half ran towards the library, Harry easily keeping up with them without even being out of breath.

"She won't listen to reason, Ron-kun," Harry explained, patting his red-hared friend's back sympathetically. "Fan girls believe what they want to believe. Do you know in Ginny's year the 'Harry Potter Fans' all think I like girls with their hair in ponytails?"

"Uh…why?" Ron asked.

"Who knows. I give up with Fan Girls and their thought processes. And Lockhart must screw up his fan's brain's somewhere to make them think he's actually competent- wait, Hermione-san! Be reasonable! That bag is heavy! Stop trying to kill us!" Harry yelped, ducking as a red-faced Hermione swiped at them both with her bag.

"I am not a Fan Girl!"

"Suuuure you're not…."

"You're lucky we're going in a Library, Harry," Hermione growled.

Honestly, Fan Girls were scary no matter where you came from, be they ninja, civilian, Muggle or Magical.

"Anyway," Harry said quickly, not really wanting to get into an argument with her when there was something this important going on – and when she was holding a rather heavy looking book and an exceptionally heavy bag that most certainly hurt when you got hit with it. "Have you found what we're supposed to be looking for?"

"Oh yes," Hermione said, attention turning back to the book and Harry sighed, relieved. "Here," she said, flipping the book to the correct page and lay it out for them to see. There were pictures of people half transformed into other people down the side of the writing. Harry couldn't help but wonder if it was just the artists strange pictures that made them look like they were in pain or if it was actually a side effect. He grimaced. He really rather preferred the idea of a henge more and more.

"This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen," Hermione said as she intently scanned the ingredients list. "Lacewing flies, leaces, fluxweed and Knotgrass…well, they're easy enough, they're in the student store cupboard, we can help ourselves."

"But what about the powdered Bicorn horn and shredded Boomslang skin?" Harry asked, frowning. They weren't student ingredients, he knew that. "Are you suggesting we steal, Hermione-san? Wow, to think we had such a bad influence," he tutted.

"And a bit of someone we're supposed to be turning into," Hermione added, ignoring Harry's remark, and from he look of horrified disgust on Ron's face, Harry could imagine what he thought on the subject. Harry was more and more glad of his henge.

Hermione interrupted Ron before he could get into his protest of not drinking anything with Crabbe's toenails in it. "We don't have to worry about that yet because we add those in last."

"We still have to get those other things first though," Harry reminded her. "You sure you want to stain your record with a little borrowing from Snape-sensei?"

"We don't have a choice," she said grimly. "I don't want to break the rules, you know. I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out if it's Malfoy or not I'll hand the book back to Madam Price…"

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd persuade us to break rules," Ron said, shaking his head in disbelief. "But no toenails, ok?" he added, pulling a face in disgust at the thought.

"How long will it take to make anyway?" Harry asked. After all, if they delayed for too long then there would be a lot of problems, especially for the Muggle-borns. Beside, Harry really wasn't sure Malfoy was capable of murder. The guy was an idiot and thought he was better than anyone else, but being a ninja and constantly around people capable of killing others, he just didn't feel that same feeling from Malfoy. They needed to see at least if he knew something though. What he shouted out made him think it was possible he at least knew something about it. And if he knew something, it might point them in the right direction anyway.

"Well, the fluxweed has got to be picked on the full moon and the lacewings have got to be stewed for twenty-one days…it says it should be ready in a month, if we can get all the ingredients…"

"A month?" Ron gaped, worry obvious on his face. "Malfoy could have attacked half the school by then!" he stiffened when Hermione gave him a sharp look and quickly added "But if it's the only choice we've got, I say full steam ahead."

"Actually, Ron is right about that," Harry said, leaning back in the chair with a frown, arms crossed. The entire situation had him go into mission mode and he quickly thought over the possibilities. "I've got an idea too, but you're going to have to trust me."

"What?"

"The invisibility cloak for one," Harry said. "We can't really go around with too many of us though. So if you guys can keep on with the potion, I'll see if I can get us any information in the meantime."

"Harry, that's dangerous!" Hermione said, eyes wide at him. "What if you get caught?"

"I won't be. I thought you had more faith in me than that," Harry scoffed, waving a hand. "Besides, I'll be invisible. Either way, I'll look into it after the game tomorrow. If I'm not around for that I think it'd be a bit suspicious, but after that, I'll see if I can't hear any extra information before the potion is done. That way, we might be able to stop things before the attacks on the Muggle-borns get too much."

Hermione bit her lip. "A-are you sure?"

"It's the only option we really have right now. But don't worry too much," he said, patting Hermione's shoulder and winked. "I'm pretty damned sneaky when I want to be."

"It'll be a lot less hassle if you can just knock Malfoy off his broom tomorrow," Ron grumbled.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_I'm being stalked by a Bludger now? _

It was the first Quidditch game of the season – Gryffindor verses Slytherin – and it was always a match that wasn't going to be the most fair of matches, but the last thing he had really been expecting was to end up with a Bludger that had been tampered with. He had had to activate his Sharingan to both look for the Snitch to hurry up and finish the game off, and also to avoid being beaten to death by the Bludger.

He hoped that Anko wouldn't learn about this, because she'd love the idea of having this in training. And Harry would rather not go home to his brothers as a pancake.

"Someone's – tampered – with – this – bludger!" Fred grinted as he tried to hit the bludger away.

"Jee, you think, _Ahou_?" Harry snapped as he darted past once George had bashed the thing from hitting him again after it changed directions again. "I'll deal with it, just finish this game before anything else happens!"

He could hear Malfoy laughing, asking him if he was training for the ballet or something and his eyes narrowed as he saw out of the corner of his eye the bludger following him again. An Anko-ish grin spread across his face and he shot forwards as the bludger was coming at him and quickly kicked his broom to angle it upwards and flipped himself up so that he was doing a handstand on the edge just as the bludger darted past and he heard a squawk of horror from Malfoy, who just managed to avoid it though he almost fell off at the same time. Harry smirked as he managed to flip back onto his broom again.

"Are you mad, Potter?" Malfoy squawked.

"Possibly," Harry smirked, before he had to dart off once more to avoid the Bludger that had come back once more. Swallowing, Harry quickly went back to dodging. They really needed to finish this and fast – he was sure it was locking onto him faster each time.

Thankfully, his Sharingan picked up a glint of gold and he wasted no time darting after it, pretty much almost knocking Malfoy off his broom a second time as he darted passed, reaching out and grabbed-

Crack!

Harry hissed in pain as his arm was flung into the Snitch, a sickening crack happening at the same time and pulled his arm to himself. He heard the whistle blow, but even as he opened his eyes he could still see the bludger coming.

"_Kuso_…" Harry snarled as he quickly tried to get out of the way, ignoring his injured arm as best as he could as he reached in his clothes and tossed an exploding tag towards the ball.

BOOM!

The force of the explosion sent Harry flinging to the ground, his broom following him as bits of bludger rained down behind him. "Let's…not try that again…" Harry groaned as he tried to get up again, letting the Sharingan fade from his eyes, wincing as his injured arm, broken, twinged in pain. He snorted. Training with Anko was good for something at least – especially for pain endurance.

The sound of sloshing of mud broke through Harry's musing as he realised people were all coming down towards him – unfortunately, in the lead was Lockhart.

"Don't you worry, Harry," Lockhart chirruped. "I can fix that right up for you!"

"No way, no, _iie_, not going to happen," Harry snapped, pulling his arm to him as he tried to scramble to get up, but was pushed back down.

"He doesn't know what he's saying-"

"I so too know what I'm saying!"

"I've done this charm countless times-"

"Get the hell away from me!" Harry cried as he managed to grab his arm to himself and run like a madman away from Lockhart. No way in hell was he going to let him look at it. Knowing Harry's luck with that idiot he'd probably end up with no bones in his arm or something, even as Lockhart came running after him.

Harry was just thankful he got up to the Hospital Wing after he managed to lose him thanks to his ninja speed and by the time Lockhart had caught up, Madam Pomfrey had already seen what was wrong with his arm and pretty much tossed the man out of the Hospital wing. Apparently Lockhart had already tried to win her over with his 'Knowledge'.

Harry decided he was never going to say another bad word about Medics again for a long, long time.

He could have been able to go back to his dorm later that night, the bones had been fixed almost as fast, if not faster than if he had used his Mystic Palm on himself. However, he was asked to stay in the Hospital wing over night, just to make sure that there had been no other kinds of damage made from the exploding bludger.

Maybe he would have something to complain about them...Damned overprotective, the lot of them.

Still, as he lay with his arms tucked behind his head, staring up at the ceiling, he felt a creek on the bed and he gave a start as a strange shadow beginning to peer over him-

Harry reacted, shooting up and grabbed the thing, flipping them over so that the shadowy thing was pinned down under his hand and whipped out a kunai, holding it at the things throat, only to find that he was staring down at a face that was becoming increasingly familiar.

_Déjà vu much? _"Dobby, what the hell are you doing here now?" he paused, then gave him a determined look. "Actually, good timing, I have questions for you. The Chamber of Secrets – that's the danger you were talking about, isn't it?"

"Dobby can't say!" Dobby squeaked, eyes wide at Harry once more. "Please, Harry Potter must go home!"

"Not this again, and it's Uchiha," Harry growled, exasperated. "I can't just go home."

"Harry Potter is so noble to stay, but you can't. Dobby had hoped that his bludger would convince you to leave-"

"That was you?" Harry snarled, his hand tightening further on the grubby pillowcase the House-elf used for clothing, knuckles tightening on his kunai. "Were you trying to kill me? You better talk or else I'll-"

"No, no, not kill you, never kill you," Dobby said desperately. "Save you! Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay, not now the Chamber of Secrets has been opened once more-Eep!" a horrified look crossed his face and Harry smirked slightly, realising Dobby had let something slip that he hadn't meant to.

"So the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Harry said calmly, glad that he was finally getting some kind of answer, though his voice still had steel. "Who opened it before?"

"Please Harry Potter, Dobby can't say, Dobby can't say," the house-elf squeaked. "Dobby has already said too much. Please, just go home!" And moments later, Dobby had vanished once more with a crack.

If Harry wasn't so annoyed, he would have been really impressed by that teleporting ability. However, as it was he dissolved into swearing, until he heard the sounds of footsteps and quickly dived back under the covers, peering through the edge of the blankets as a bunch of teachers came into the room, and trailed behind him, stiff as a board and floating behind on an invisible stretcher, was Colin Creevey.

**To Be Continued….**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_**Translation List**_

_(If there are words used that don't appear here, the word has been translated in previous chapters)_

_Ahou - fool_

_Kuso – a Japanese swear word_

_Urusai – you're noisy, or normally translated to 'shut up'._

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_Well, not too many differences just yet in the second year, apart from Harry walking out of class, but things will get more different as the story goes along, such as the whole revelation of Malfoy not being the Heir is going to come a lot sooner. But a lot of the information here wasn't changed because there's a lot of information and events that helped to lead to information. I'm hoping that the rest of the chamber of secrets part will have some more dramatic changes, or at least I'm planning for it. After all, Uchiha Harry is ninja trained, he'll probably connect the dots a lot faster than canon Harry did._

_Not much else to say about this chapter just yet, not without spoiling what is to come after all. I hope that I'm keeping everyone's attention. Most people seem to not like chamber of secrets as much as the other books either – so I hope I'll be able to keep your attention. And for the few that really do like the book (I've been told in some reviews that this is their favourite) I hope that you're enjoying my rendition of it so far. _

_Anyway, Please Review! Reviews keep me motivated!_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry:**__ Things are really starting to get dangerous now. More people are getting attacked, but things are beginning to add up now. And what's this about a diary. What actually happened back when the Chamber was opened the first time? Next time on Uchiha Potter: Chamber of Secrets – Second Seal: Himitsu. Look forwards to it!_

_(Himitsu = Secret)_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	17. Chapter 16: Chamber of Secrets: 2nd Seal

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_Harry has returned to Hogwarts for his second year, only to find a mystery he might need all his ninja skills to help him discover the truth. True to Dobby's warning, trouble and Danger has arrived when Harry hears a murderous voice that leads to an ominous message – 'The Chamber of Secrets Has been Opened' Along with a petrified body of Mrs Norris. While Dobby continues to try and convince Harry to leave, Harry discovers two things – one, that the Chamber has been opened once before this, and two, that a student has now been attacked. So far, Harry's friends think Draco Malfoy is the culprit, and have already started to plan to 'get the truth' from him, but Harry isn't so sure…_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Chamber of Secrets - Second Seal: Himitsu**

When Harry finally escaped the clutches of the vulture that was Madam Pomphry, the news about what happened to Colin Creevey had already spread like wildfire (much like most things that were meant to be kept secret at Hogwarts, such as the incident with the Philosopher's stone last year) and there was a definite feeling of unease. Not that Harry was all that surprised. After the ominous message that had been found on the wall alongside Mrs Norris' petrified body, then to find on of the student's themselves had been attacked, well, it was enough to make anyone Muggleborn become at least slightly worried for their own welfare, or the welfare of Muggleborn friends or family, and no amount of telling them 'its only a myth' was going to take away the evidence that a Muggleborn student had indeed been attacked and was now hidden away behind a curtain in the Hospital Wing, body stiff and eyes wide and staring, just as Mrs Norris had been.

The Uchiha stuffed his hands in his pockets as he strode down the corridor and frowned thoughtfully. If something like this had occurred in Konoha, he was sure there would be some kind of investigation going on, he was sure, but he hadn't heard or seen anyone looking into it other than the murmured conversation he had eavesdropped on last night. But maybe they just didn't have all that much to go on yet, or they were looking into it secretly, in hopes as to not cause panic amongst the students? It was hard to say really.

Still, one thing he did know for sure was that it was likely that Ron and Hermione, who weren't waiting to see how he was that morning or hovering over him like they were prone to when he was in the Hospital Wing, were likely already moving ahead with the Polyjuice plan. After all, Hermione herself was Muggleborn and was likely worried to be targeted along with the others, and he was sure that, as much as Ron argued with her a lot, he wasn't about to sit there and let her become a target either.

_Not that I'm about to just sit here and let her become a target either_, he thought determinedly.

Not that Harry really thought Draco Malfoy was the one doing it either. He was definitely enjoying the entire thing far too much to be entirely innocent, but Harry was sure the power to vaporise a camera internally while leaving the outside intact, as well as practically turn both a cat and a student to stone…it just didn't seem like something that Malfoy had the power to do. And even if it was a monster…Wouldn't Malfoy have gone after those whom he had a grudge against the most first? Colin probably barely amounted as anything but an annoyance, if not far below Malfoy to care and Harry was certain that, if it was him, he would have gone for Muggleborns in his own age range, who were more likely to catch his disdainful attention. Hell, if anything, Harry would have thought Hermione would have been one of the first attacked if it was Malfoy – not that that thought gave him any cheer to think on.

But where to find his two friends? He'd narrowed it down at least to away from the public eye, as if someone was to see them brewing a potion that was supposed to be rather advanced for second years, it would certainly raise questions. He doubted that they would use a classroom, because even disused ones had people stumble into them, or a ghost pass through them – most of the Ghosts Harry had met, with the exception of the gaunt looking Bloody Baron, who came across as antisocial, were notorious gossips – or Peeves could come in and overturn things and generally destroy everything that they were doing – he was sure Hermione, at least, would consider that possibility.

The only place he could really think of that people tended to avoid (Hermione had complained about it before one time she actually did go in there) and where Peeves the Poltergeist was unlikely to appear was the very place that he was standing in front of right now. He grimaced. A Girl's bathroom. Not any Girl's bathroom though. A bathroom that, from what Harry had heard, was haunted by a very depressed ghost who seemed to have morbid tendencies that everyone avoided. Even the other ghosts seemed to find the toilet haunting ghost morbid and that said something!

_If Sasuke or Naruto…hell, if Hokage-ojii or Anko-sensei heard about this, they'd never let me hear the end of it! _Harry thought, inwardly shuddered at the fact he was willingly entering such a place as he checked there was no one around (particularly Filch, who had often stood guard around the area ever since they found Mrs Norris handing around the wall he had just past) and slipped inside. He could only hope that this wouldn't end with him ambushed by the 'Harry Potter Fans' or something equally ridiculous. He could only hope that this was not going to become a running trend, what with fighting the troll in the Girl's bathroom last year and now this.

_Still, to haunt a toilet…that's got to be damned well degrading… _

To his relief, Harry didn't run into anyone coming out, but he did hear the faint sound of murmured talk in there coming from one of the toilet stalls, and moaned wailing from another toilet (he suspected that one to be this 'Moaning Myrtle' Hermione mentioned) and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrow. Smirking faintly, Harry knocked on the door with the back of his knuckles and he heard a clunk and a splash, along with a startled gasp that made his eyebrow raise further before Hermione's brown eye appeared at the keyhole

"Really, the both of you in one stall?" Harry drawled. "How bold of you guys, and so young too! Should I leave you two alone for a while or something?"

The door opened to reveal Hermione, who sighed with relief. "You made me jump," she frowned, pulling him inside too, obviously fighting back a blush. "And don't say stupid things like that, Harry."

The stall was small that there had barely been enough space for Harry to join Ron and Hermione as well as the caldron simmering away, one of Hermione's trademark waterproof blue flames keeping the liquid at the right temperature. The Uchiha couldn't help but wrinkle his nose slightly at the smell from it, once more really glad of having the ability to Henge.

"How's your arm?" Hermione asked worriedly as she settled down to stir the potion once more.

"We would have come to see you but-" Ron started, but Harry cut him off.

"Don't worry about it. Besides my arm's good as new," Harry waved it off as he crouched down, face becoming a little more serious. "Guess you heard about what happened to Camera-boy then, huh." In all honesty, he'd be more surprised if they _didn't_ know anything about it.

"You mean Colin?" Hermione nodded seriously. "Yes. Ron and I heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning when we were coming to see you, so that's why we thought we should get started-"

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better," Snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after the Quiddich match that he took it out on Colin."

"If he was going to do something like that, why didn't he just have that monster or whatever petrify me then, or one of the Quidditch team – I'm willing to bet there's at least one Muggleborn in the team," Harry waved it off. "Don't get me wrong, Malfoy's petty as hell, but seriously, where do you get these ideas from, Ron-kun? Anyway," He cut off before Ron could interrupt him and once more pound it into their heads about how Malfoy 'Had to be the one attacking people'. "Never mind that right now. I heard something you might be interested in if you're really intending to go through with all this-"

Quickly, Harry explained to the two of them about what he had discovered from Dobby – though he left out about having pinned him to the bed with a Kunai at his throat – both of them listening intently with mouths opened in surprise and eyes wide.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione gasped.

"Seems like it," Harry said, resting his chin on the palm of one hand, elbows braced on his knees as he watched Hermione, though still surprised, automatically taking care of the potion.

"This settles it," Ron said, voice triumphant. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the chamber when he was at school here. And now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious," Harry snorted in disbelief at Ron's surety about it despite all the times Harry said otherwise. "Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though," Ron said, finally getting back to something more sensible. "I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around school"

"Well, if you ask me it's probably something reptilian or a snake of some kind," Harry shrugged, only to be stared at in surprise. "…What? It's Slytherin's monster, right? You know, _Slytherin_? Their symbol being a _Snake_?"

Hermione's face turned thoughtful. "You know, you could be right about that….but Ron's right too, how would it be sneaking around? I don't know if there's some magical reptile that can camouflage itself like that that no one's noticing. It could be….no, wait, I'll have to check up on that… Maybe it can disguise itself? I mean I've read something about Chameleon Ghouls-"

"You read too much, Hermione," Ron scoffed as he poured dead lacewings on top of the leaches for the potion.

"If it finds us some details on what kind of creature's after us, I suppose it's not too much of a bad thing," Harry shrugged. "I mean, say, hypothetically, we find out Malfoy really is this Heir. I'm pretty sure if he found out he wouldn't be happy with us finding out the secret and that little monster of Slytherin'll probably be what would 'silence' us so we don't tell anyone."

Hermione and Ron shivered at the thought. "Do you have to be so morbid?" Ron groaned, looking pale under his freckles.

Harry just smiled at him. "Would you have me any other way?"

"Yeah. Cheerful," Ron countered, before shaking his head, changing the subject a little. "Anyway, about Dobby…He sent that rogue Bludger after you to break your arm so you'd go home, right? You know what, Harry, if he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you."

"Now look who's being morbid," Harry shot back with a smirk before getting up, pulling out his Invisibility cloak that he had taken with him before the match the day before. After all, he was going to do a little spying to see if he could hear any information before he got put in the Hospital Wing. Might as well get started now he was out and his arm was in one piece.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked.

"I'm going to see what I can find out, like I said I was going to," Harry rolled his eyes. "Besides, even if I don't find out any information about this by tailing him, I'll at least find out the password to Slytherin, or even where their dorms are…" he noticed the odd expressions that his two civilian-wizard friends shot each other and felt partly amused, and partly exasperated. "Did you even think to find that out when we only have limited time in those Slytherin forms?" _Honestly, I thought they had more sense…_

"Uh…"

"Well, I'll have it handled, don't worry," Harry waved it off, slinging his cloak about his shoulders.

"Hey, what if you do find out if Malfoy's really the guy doing this," Ron said quickly. "What about the potion?"

"Well, if it is that Malfoy's not our guy, we might need the potion if we find another suspect," Harry shrugged, though he wasn't sure that Ron saw that part since the invisibility cloak was covering his shoulders. "The potion can be saved if that's the case, right?" he added to Hermione.

"Yes, as long as we finish it," Hermione agreed.

"Does that mean we still have to steal from Snape?" Ron groaned, going pale at the thought. Harry had no idea why Ron was so worried. Sure Snape was a pain, but Harry had dealt with Anko, and she was far, far worse when in her most sadistic of moods.

"Don't be a baby, Ron," Hermione scolded.

"Think about it, Malfoy might not be our guy, but he knows something about all this. He might spill who the real Heir is and if he does, we might need the polyjuice potion for that," _Or at least you guys will, and I can't go giving away my ninja skills to them just yet…_ "Anyway, even if Malfoy is the guy and I overhear him say he is, which I doubt, well, we'll probably need it for something. This is practically becoming a habit," Harry added dryly. "Anyway, wish me luck." He added as he pulled the cloak over himself and spirited out of the bathroom, leaving Ron and Hermione to deal with the potion for now.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

As it was, following the Slytherins was an odd mix of rather easy, though he was sure that, had it not been for his cloak and ability to use his chakra to stick to the walls that it would have been much, much harder. Slytherins were, after all, placed into that how for their sly and cunning as well as ambition. Not to mention as much as the cloak made him invisible, it didn't make him incorporeal after all. If someone bumped into him, it could easily give him away.

Still, it was easy to pick out who he needed to follow to discover their dorms because the green emblem and other green hints in the Slytherin uniforms, and so it didn't take him long to find a group of Slytherins heading towards the dungeons – which Harry knew was where the Slytherin dorms were vaguely, but otherwise wasn't certain of its exact location – talking about getting some books or something to do homework. Carefully, Harry kept the cloak wrapped around himself best as possible despite the fact he was standing on the ceiling – honestly, civilians just never looked up, and even if they did, he was covered enough not to be seen much anyway – and followed.

Matching his pace to theirs so that any echoes wouldn't tip them off as to someone following them, Harry followed until they stopped by a blank stretch of bare, damp stone wall. Frowning slightly, Harry quickly stopped too, wondering what they were doing until he realised that, unlike Gryffindor, the Slytherin Common Room must not have a portrait guardian.

Really, Harry wasn't sure if that was a good security measure or not. Sure it made it more difficult to find initially, but it would make things easier later if Harry needed to smuggle himself, be it under cloak or if Ron, Hermione and himself were posing as Slytherin Students themselves, or a Kage Bunshin, or even one of his snake summons into there. After all, without one of those living portraits, the wall wouldn't consider if they were in the wrong uniform or not, hell, if they were human or not. A bit of a stroke of luck on his part it seemed. Either that or Slytherin himself had been a bit too overconfident.

Straining his ears from where he was hiding, Harry distinctly heard the Slytherin student turn to the wall and say the password

"Pureblood"

If it wouldn't make him reveal himself by dropping the cloak he had wrapped around him, Harry would have smacked himself in the forehead. Honestly, and people wondered why the Slytherins had a bad reputation, especially considering what this Heir and monster were supposed to stand for – not to mention Malfoy calling Muggleborns 'Mudblood' at every given opportunity.

The wall shuddered slightly as the stone moved, seams becoming obvious where there hadn't been any before, creating a stone door that sliding away, revealing the inside of the Slytherin common room. The students strode inside before the wall moved once more and vanished into the stone wall once more, appearing as though the passage had never been there at all.

Waiting a few moments, Harry jumped down and made his way into shadowy corner. making sure there was no one around, he quickly bit his thumb and began hand seals, planting his hand on the ground. Kanji seals spread out around his palm as the summoning jutsu began to take effect. Moments later, there was a soft 'poof' as a plume of smoke as the snake he summoned appeared before him. It wasn't a huge snake like the ones that Anko could summon. In fact it wasn't even the largest of the ones that Harry could summon, considering he could get to medium sized snakes by this point, larger than regular serpents that could be found in the wild. This snake was only about as long as his arm from shoulder to fingertip, almost black in colour with beady yellow eyes that stared back at him as it reared back slightly to look up at the crouched Uchiha before it.

"What do you- Oh," the snake started in human language until it realised who it was speaking to, before reverting into snake tongue "…_Its you, huh. The little Speaker_," it hissed at him, its irritation that it seemed to have at first melting off slightly, yet at the same time almost seemed resigned. Harry had summoned this snake before. It as one he had summoned several times during his practices. "_Practicing again_?" it sighed. "_I thought you could summon my bigger cousin's by now…"_

"_Actually, no_," Harry hissed in return. "_I actually have a job for you, Mamushi."_

"_Oh?"_ Mamushi blinked at that, becoming at least somewhat more interested, which was something of a feat since the Summon snakes always seemed interested, almost excited even in the idea of a human that could speak their language. Of course, Mamushi was pretty used to him by this point from his summon practice, the only reason he was actually acting pretty calmly. _"I could be interested. Continue."_

"_There's something I need you to listen out for and report back to me,"_ Harry returned. _"Anything about 'the Chamber of Secrets', or anything about 'Slytherin's Heir'. Make sure you especially listen out for anything Draco Malfoy might be talking about as he seems to know something about it. He's not hard to spot. Arrogant pipsqueak with white-blonde slicked back hair, always hanging around with two goons with about three brain cells between them. You can't miss them. Stay out of sight though."_

"_Spy work, huh? Haven't done that in a while…" _the snake hummed._ "What do I get for it?"_

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. Typical snakes, only doing things if they feel like it or got something in return. _"I'll make sure to get you some fat juicy mice for when your done."_ The Uchiha promised.

"_Hm…fine," _ Mamushi nodded. _"Only because you're a Speaker though. But they better be __really__ juicy ones."_

Harry nodded, before wrapping the invisibility cloak around him once more, stepping in front of the wall and gave the password so the wall slid away once more, letting the snake disappear inside. That done, Harry darted off before anyone came to check on the door. He didn't feel like testing his dodging skills right now after all.

With the common room 'bugged', Harry could turn his attention on keeping an eye on Malfoy when he was around the hallways, just in case.

Not that Harry could just vanish altogether to follow Malfoy. If he was absent from classes and meals, it would soon bring suspicion to him, or at least draw attention to himself in a way he really preferred not to. After all, he would need to give himself an alibi by being seen elsewhere, otherwise people might start to think he was the Heir of Slytherin or something ridiculous. But situation as it was and how the rumour mill seemed to work at hyper speed at Hogwarts, it was better not to get people started, otherwise he'd be watched far too closely for him to actually look into things.

Thus, Harry ducked into an unused classroom and performed a cross-shaped hand seal and a poof later, a replica of himself stood before him in the same pose.

"Want to go spy on Malfoy?" Harry asked the clone, who shot him an amused look, gathering something from his plans that had transferred to the clone, before the clone darted away to deal with Malfoy, flipping up onto the ceiling quickly and running off to follow Malfoy around. At least if a clone was spotted it could dispel before anyone got a good look at it.

_Hopefully we'll get something from that guy,_ Harry thought as he folded his cloak up and stuffed it away once more. _The sooner we find this out, the sooner we can deal with the problem before it gets out of hand._

He half wished he could just beat the answer out of Malfoy, but he did have his doubts that Malfoy even knew any more about the chamber than they did. And even if this didn't work, there was always the Polyjuice based Plan B.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Stealing the ingredients from Snape had gone off without a hitch. After all, Harry had been an expert at pranking ninja, causing a little mayhem without being caught was almost pathetically easy. Though Snape shot dark glances Harry's way, Harry himself knew the man had no real proof it was him and the only reason he glared his way was because Snape always thought he was up to something. That argument would never hold up water though, so Harry knew they got away with it. In the chaos, Hermione had grabbed the ingredients they needed without notice.

Harry really was quite proud. Shame the other two weren't ninja, they have made a great three man cell.

With everything they needed now together, the potion was going well and would be finished by Christmas. Malfoy, it seemed hadn't yet said anything that Harry's clone had picked up, though he was sure the boy would eventually say something in the common room. Even though there hadn't been an attack since Colin, apparently, according to Mamushi, talk to the chamber was still going on. Hopefully, the snake would hear something useful soon.

In the meantime, during the times Harry excused himself from the potions making to 'spy', he spent his time in the Library, trying to look through various books of magical creatures to see if he could find anything that might match the bits of information he did have. So far he narrowed the list down to a few things, but he wasn't sure about some of it yet, such as the ability to paralyse seemed to match, but not being able to creep around undetected and there were plenty of books to go yet. Still, it was a start, if it came to needing to confront the creature directly for whatever reason.

While there had been little in way of news on the Chamber of Secrets front, something of interest did crop up a week later when Harry, Ron and Hermione were making their way across the entrance hall, only to find a group of people gathered around the notice ball, murmuring to each other.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, interestedly as he glanced over the notices, hands in his pockets.

"It's a duelling club!" Seamus Finnigan said brightly. "They're just starting it. First meeting's tonight! I wouldn't mind duelling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

"What, you reckon Slytherin's Monster can duel?" Ron, who had also approached with Hermione (and obviously heard what Seamus had said) asked dryly, but he eyed the sign too with interest. "Could be useful though. Should we go?" he asked.

"Why not?" Harry shrugged, eyeing the notice with much more interest. After all, he had looked up plenty of spells during the times he had a clone sit in on Lockhart's 'lessons'. Maybe if he joined the club he might be able to actually practice them better, or even incorporate the spell casting into his fighting style too without having to always keep an eye open about being caught. "Sounds interesting to me."

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" Hermione wondered, eyes bright as they always were when she was going to learn something. "Someone told me Flitwick was a duelling Champion when he was younger. Maybe it'll be him?"

"Really?" Harry asked, interested. He hadn't realised that the tiny man who had shown him around Diagon Ally the first time was actually a veteran fighter. "Heh…cool. Maybe, but as long as their competent, we should at least learn a few useful things, right?"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

-Thud-

_Me and my big mouth…_

-Thud-

"Uh….Harry?"

-Thud-

"…Yes?"

-Thud-

"Why are you hitting your head against the stage….?"

-Thud-

Indeed, Harry had gained some attention to himself as, as soon as their teacher had stepped onto the golden coloured stage, Harry had let out a large groan and started to try to kill off as many brain cells as he could to save himself from the hell that he was about to face.

And what, pray tell, was this hell that he was about to be subject to?

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

Gilderoy Lockhart, in robes of deep plum beamed around at them all with his blindness-educing grin, igniting the sighs of the oblivious fangirls and the groans of those who had already worked out that Lockhart had the talent of a teaspoon. Already Harry had given this up at a complete farce before it even started. His only saving grace was, oddly, Snape, who had also stalked onto the stage in his usual Jet black robes and supporting a deep frown and shooting irritable glances at the flamboyant Defence 'teacher'.

_Please let Snape kill him, please let Snape kill him, please, please, please let Snape kill him…_Harry mentally chanted as he forced himself not to dent his Hitae ate further and to actually pay some attention. If he was lucky, Snape would cream him for their entertainment.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club," Lockhart was saying and inwardly, Harry wondered if he should get the man's head checked for even considering having Lockhart do something like this, unless Dumbledore was hoping as much as Harry was that Snape would finish him off and save everyone from having to deal with him for the rest of the year. "to train you all in case you need to defend yourself as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works."

"Can we go home yet?" Harry groaned. Ron sniggered next to him while Hermione elbowed them both sharply, listening to Lockhart intently.

As it was, Lockhart either didn't hear him or chose not to as he continued. "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. He tells me he knows a little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me in a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry – you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered in Harry's ear.

"The only way that could happen was if Lockhart fired the wrong spell and Snape-sensei was half asleep…" Harry murmured before raising his voice. "Kick the crap out of him, Snape-sensei!"

Hey, just because he and Snape didn't see eye to eye didn't mean they couldn't unite against a common enemy. After all, the way Snape's upper lip was curling at Lockhart, Harry was quite sure that Snape was likely envisioning the man's head on a pike and Harry greatly supported that idea.

"Harry!" Hermione scolded, slapping the back of the Uchiha's head. However, Harry was sure that Snape's dark eyes flickered in his direction momentarily, though with marginally less hate directed at him than usual, even something close to approval of all things. Obviously he, like Harry, hated Lockhart far more. Not that it meant Snape liked Harry or vice versa, but Lockhart was the bigger threat to their sanity than each other.

Lockhart did an impressive job at keeping that grin on his face, though it momentarily faltered at the cheer for Snape. Harry was sure it was probably only him and Snape that noticed it, mores the pity, considering that Lockhart continued on as if there hadn't been a yell in the first place. The two professors turned to face each other and bowed, Lockhart rather dramatically with twirling hands, while Snape's was far more appropriate, a short, irritable jerk of his head, but with his dark eyes fixed on his opponent as the two of them raised their wands. Not that Harry blamed him. Knowing Lockhart he'd probably pull something stupid.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative stance," Lockhart told the silent crowd. Harry felt a stab of irritation. He guessed that it would be accepted if it was some kind of tournament style or a duel that would be judged by others, but Harry was pretty sure in a real magical battle that there wouldn't be such obvious stances. Unless wizards were either much more honourable than ninja or were damned slow spell casters. Still, he watched carefully, activating his Sharingan just in case. At the very least seeing Snape sending Lockhart home in a thimble would be amusing to have engraved into his memory even if there wasn't a useful spell thrown to copy.

"On the count of three," Lockhart continued, "we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"Che right…" Harry snorted, seeing Snape's face was remarkably close in expression to Anko's when she was seriously pissed off. "Anyone want to bet how long Lockhart'll last?"

"Half a minute?" Ron suggested.

"One – two – three –"

"Expelliarmus!"

Moments later in a dazzling flash of scarlet, Lockhart was blasted off his feet, flying off the stage and smashed into the wall, before sliding down to a crumpled heap on the floor with a thud.

Harry burst out laughing at that and applauded. Maybe this would be more entertaining than he thought if Lockhart was going to get tossed around like a ball. Even Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins cheered, though whether it was because they were glad that Lockhart was being thrown around or if it was because their head of house was the one doing it, Harry didn't know. Nor did he care, he was in total agreement with them for once. The more misery Lockhart got the better.

…Ok, maybe Anko's sadism had rubbed off on him slightly. Only slightly.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Hermione asked worriedly, on the balls of her feet to try and see if Lockhart wasn't hurt at all.

"Who cares!" crowed the boys.

As it was, Lockhart got back to his feet unsteadily (unfortunately) though Harry was further amused by the fact his hair was standing on end even more than Naruto's usually did, looking like a wavy pined porcupine.

"Well there you have it," Lockhart said as he made his way back to the stage unsteadily. "That was a disarming charm – as you see, I've lost my wand – ah, thank you, Miss Brown – yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I wanted to stop you, it would have been far too easy – however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape looked utterly murderous and Harry was certain that if they continued, Snape really would obliterate Lockhart. (Un) fortunately, Lockhart wasn't quite as dense as he appeared, or at least had some sense of self preservation, because it seemed he noticed too, to Harry's disappointment.

"Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me…"

"Kuso," Harry sighed. He really wanted to see Lockhart get abused some more. Oh well…

Not that Harry expected much from a group lead by Lockhart of all things. It was as much a disaster as Harry expected it to become, though he was sure Snape was secretly trying to sabotage the entire thing too by putting people who hated each other or worked abysmally together into pairs. One good thing did come out of it though as Snape divided up Harry and his friends into separate pairs with other people, however. Harry got someone who he could quite happily curse as he turned towards his partner, Malfoy, as they were forced to go onto stage to 'demonstrate' how to 'block unfriendly spells' with barely suppressed Ankoish glee. He was sure Malfoy looked somewhat paler than normal, if that was at all possible, though he sneered back at Harry in return.

While Snape murmured pointers to Malfoy, Lockhart turned his attention to Harry, who was less than impressed at Lockhart's attempt to 'demonstrate' what to do when Malfoy aimed his wand at him, succeeding only in doing some complicated wriggling action that send his wand clattering to the floor.

"Woops! My wand got a little overexcited-"

Snape, obviously overhearing this smirked while Harry's eyebrow ticked.

"Ahou." He snorted, shoving Lockhart out of the way with a quick motion to approach the centre of the stage. The only think Lockhart would ever be able to help him with was to lose his temper.

"Scared?" Sneered Malfoy, who suddenly seemed calm. Harry had to wonder what Snape had told him. He almost wished that Snape could have given him 'pointers'. It would have been full of insults but at least it would have been useful.

"Of what, the floor? Get real," Harry snorted in return, ignoring Lockhart trying to tell him to 'do what he did'. Honestly, if he wanted to look like a moron he didn't need prince of poor brains to tell him how to do it. Still, if nothing else, he knew that Malfoy most certainly wasn't going to go easy.

"Three – two – one – go!"

Malfoy raised his wand, Harry got his ready in return as Malfoy shouted, "Serpensortia!"

Harry had prepared to blast whatever spell that was about to come his way. However, rather than a spell of some harmful nature, there was, instead, a long black snake around the same size as Mamushi that fell heavily to the ground heavily between them before rearing back and hissing, ready to strike, though Harry was more impressed by the snake's swear words. It had quite the potty mouth for a snake. Some people screamed as students clamoured away from the stage, but Harry snorted, resting one hand on his hip as he lowered his wand slightly.

"That's it?" Harry asked dryly. "You could have shot any spell at me and you decide to summon a snake? Pathetic."

Ignoring Lockhart who was talking about 'getting rid of it' – he'd probably summon another one instead of getting rid of it, the idiot – and, with all his snake experience from the serpent related missions that He and Anko had gone on over the summer, Harry managed to grab the snake behind the head before it could try to bite him and picked it up, turning its head towards him.

"_Zip it,"_ he told it quietly, stunning the snake into silence. Anko had told him how cool snake talk sounded, which probably meant it sounded weird and creepy. Not something he particularly wanted the whole school to know. Still he glanced to Lockhart, holding the now still snake (who was obviously still in shock of a human speaking its language) out to the man with a smirk. "Well? You wanted to help. Want it?"

Harry was quite pleased to see Lockhart flinch a little as the snake flicked its tongue out. Malfoy was just staring at him in shock.

Moments later, Snape did an odd movement and there was a poof of black smoke and the snake vanished. Shame, he wondered what kind of conversationalist the snake would have been like. Oh well.

Still, it brought the club to an end quickly after that, though Harry wondered if Snape had actually picked up on him using snake language, because an odd, calculating and shrewd look was in the man's eyes that followed him and his friends out of the hall.

As they made their way towards the dormitories, Ron and Hermione pulled him into a side room, both him and Hermione looking at him speculatively.

"What?" he asked irritably after they stared at him for long enough.

"Um….Harry, I know this might seem like an odd question, but did you say something to that snake?" Hermione asked nervously. "We saw your lips moving but…"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why?"

Ron gaped at him. "Why didn't you tell us you were a Parselmouth?"

"Parselmouth?" Harry tried the name out. It sounded ridiculous for a bloodline name. Then again, it was a wizard ability and they had a habit of giving things with weird names. "Is that what this ability is?"

"Have….have you talked to snakes before?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"Lots of times," Harry shrugged. Some of them could be rather chatty, in fact.

"And….this never concerned you?"

"Why would it?" Harry sighed as his two friends just shared looks between each other. "Ok, I'm going to assume this is a bad thing since you guys are beating around the bush. Ok, hit me, what's wrong."

"Well, it's not a common gift…." Hermione explained slowly, tentatively. "The ability to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of his house is a snake. If anyone else worked out you spoke to that snake in Parseltongue, they're going to think that you're the Heir of Slytherin. Oh, we're really going to have to keep it secret otherwise everyone will think you're the person attacking Muggleborns."

Harry opened his mouth, paused, then closed it with a sigh. He doubted the argument 'They'd be thick to think so because I'm best friends with many Muggles and Muggleborns' would avert them.

"Well kuso… That Secret'll be out by next week." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why did the rumour mill have to be so damned efficient around here?

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

As he suspected, the rumour mill did indeed work overtime after that, and not even by next week, but the next day, in fact, there was indeed speculation he was the Heir of Slytherin. Some weren't sure, after all, Harry didn't actually attack with a snake and the snake he had picked up hadn't moved to hurt anyone after he had spoken to it. Others scoffed at the idea, thinking that it was silly, especially the Weasley Twins who thought the entire thing to be practically a joke, considering they were often prank buddies with Harry, and some people were logical enough to remind others that Harry had two adopted little brothers who didn't appear to be Magical, even if they were weird. But some of the more panicky of the Muggleborns obviously wanted someone to blame and immediately refused to be around him.

Harry ignored those people rather stoically. After all, if they were going to be such idiots, then he wasn't going to bother with them. Besides, Naruto had suffered much, much worse because of the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. He wouldn't be much of a big brother if he couldn't stand it either.

Still, It was hard to actually blame Harry when Justin Finch-Fletchley and Sir Nick the Gryffindor Ghost got attacked the next day, as Harry himself had been spotted by a good group of people sitting in the common Room completely ignoring anyone looking at him as he and Ron were really into a chess game that Ron had badgered him into to 'keep his mind off things', not that Harry had let it bother him prior to that. Still, it had been the thought that counted.

Since Harry had had an alibi, people really weren't sure what to think once McGonagall had brought up the news to their common room.

It was certainly a long time before anyone went to bed at any rate. People really were starting to panic now. After all, what could harm a ghost like that?

Later that night, Harry was lying, arms behind his head as he frowned at the canopy of his bed. It was really strange. Honestly, he hadn't thought a Ghost could be effected by whatever monster he had heard that appeared to be attacking people. Ghosts were practically left behind chakra images. So what _could_ harm a ghost like that?

He was just about to actually drift off to sleep when something poofed quietly next to him and Harry snapped to attention, kunai in hand, only to find Mamushi sitting by his pillow.

"_My, you're jumpy today,"_ Mamushi hissed, amused

The Uchiha sighed, running a hand across his face as he put the kunai away. _"You're going to get accidentally stabbed one of these days..."_

"_Don't you want to know what I found out?"_

That got his attention. _"He said something?"_

"_Payment first,"_ the snake said stubbornly.

Sighing, Harry carefully went into his trunk and pulled out a bag of dead mice – he normally saved them for Housenka or Manji – and passed them to the snake, who nodded approvingly, pulling the bag closer with his tail. _"Ok, spill."_

"_Well, around the obvious amusement he seems to have at people thinking you're this heir thing, and a few insults or whatever, he did say to those Pig-Human friends of his that he wished he knew who it was so he could help out and he doesn't know who it is. Said his father told him that the chamber was opened up 50 years ago though and that some student got killed, but won't tell him more than that other than someone got expelled for it or something." _The snake was busy eyeing the bag that he had in his coils to really sound all that interested in the information that he had given Harry, but Harry most certainly was interested in it all. _"Can I go now?"_

"_Oh, yeah, sure,"_ Harry waved him off, barely paying much attention when the snake had vanished in a plume of smoke, thoughts spinning in his mind. Much as he had suspected, Malfoy hadn't been the Heir, nor did he know who it was. Still, they did at least have something of a lead – 50 years ago. Maybe they could look up some records or something. Maybe of a student who died, or someone who was expelled…

He had a lot of thinking to do that night.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"So we did all that work on the potion for nothing?" Ron complained the next day when Harry had gotten around to telling Hermione and Ron about the information that 'he' found out. (Of course, he conveniently 'forgot' to tell them how he got his information, or rather, who had got him the information). They were currently sitting in the library, Hermione had her head buried in a book to look up magical serpents, having gotten the idea from the fact she now knew that Harry was a Parselmouth, and from Harry mentioning Slytherin's serpentine connection. Harry was writing quickly a letter to the Hokage concerning the new details (as Sarutobi had asked him in his last letter) - in Japanese so that the others wouldn't think he was doing anything more than writing to Naruto and Sasuke, considering it wouldn't be long until Christmas was upon them.

"Dammit, I was so sure it was Malfoy," Ron whined, for what had to be the fifth time since Harry had told them "And don't you dare say 'I told you so'," he added, prodding Harry in the arm as Harry's lips twitched up in a half smirk, obviously about to do just that.

"Oh don't complain, at least we found out some information, right?" Harry waved it off. "If we can find out who was expelled 50 years ago, maybe we can track their descendent that's caused the Chamber to be opened this time. After all, most of the time when an Heir is made it's usually a person directly blood related. And as much of a _baka _that Malfoy is, its better to actually catch the real heir than to accuse the wrong person and just cause more trouble. It's annoying enough that people think I'm the heir. Probably why there's pretty much a rush of people going home for the Christmas holidays. I guess it kind of works in our favour though if we're doing more snooping."

"Will your brothers be coming again?" Hermione asked curiously, a little interest in her eyes. After all, she only got to see the two boys a little when she was travelling from and back to Hogwarts for the holidays last year.

Harry's expression faltered at that, a tightness in his chest. "….No…no…" he sighed. "I'm telling them they won't be able to come this year. They're Muggles or whatever, so if they came here with that Heir and its monster hunting Muggleborns, they'd probably get targeted. I'd rather them be a bit disappointed than Petrified… or dead…"

Honestly, if something happened to Sasuke again that he couldn't protect him from like with what happened when the Uchiha were killed, or Naruto, their bundle of happy energy that was their blond adopted brother was targeted and hurt, or worse, Harry would never be able to forgive himself. He could be flippant and recalcitrant, but when it came to his brothers, practically his reason for staying the right side of sanity, Harry took his job as Big Brother very seriously.

"I'm sorry…" Hermione said softly.

"Don't be," Harry waved it off, focusing hard on the letter he was composing. "Let's just hurry up and find that damned heir so we can get this place back to normal."

Now if Hermione would stop giving him those pitying looks he would be fine.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Christmas was pretty depressing in a way. True, Harry got presents from his friends and despite his brother's long, long protesting letters, they seemed to understand in a way even though they were worried (Harry had told them he was currently on a proper mission alongside his 'Learning at Hogwarts' one) and had sent him presents too, but it just wasn't the same. There were so few people who remained and out of those that did Malfoy and his goons had stayed too. Not exactly the happiest of experiences for him, though Harry had been very, very tempted to give him a Christmas present that would have him hanging naked in the Forbidden Forest, but unfortunately, looking for their mysterious Slytherin Heir took higher priority, mores the pity.

Still, there hadn't been much in way of progress finding details. There didn't seem to be any records of past students, at least none that they could check out or find in the regular sections ad somehow Harry doubted that they could scan the restricted section shelves without drawing the attention of the Librarian. Without a clear view of where those details could be, they couldn't trick Lockhart into giving teachers permission to find it either.

As for the monster, Hermione had shortened the list somewhat to three or four different magical creatures, but for all they knew the monster could have been some kind of experimental monster, as Hermione said. In those days, it was likely not yet illegal to do it, and even if it was, Salazar Slytherin didn't seem the kind to put laws about his prejudice. They wouldn't be able to tell unless they found out something stylistic to a certain creature to know for sure.

As such, they were once more at a dead end – until the book was found. Their attention had been drawn by Filches complaints and Myrtle's upset wails. Harry couldn't help but look over at the book that had been thrown trough the crying ghost girl.

It was an odd book, not by appearance though. In appearance it looked like a perfectly normal diary with a black leather cover. He was about to pick it up when, surprisingly, Ron stopped him.

"Are you crazy?" Ron said urgently. "It could be dangerous!"

Harry gave him a long deadpanned look. Sure Harry was used to odd things by this point. Demons sealed into children, talking summon animals, finding a teacher with two faces, having the ability to stand on water and walk up walls. But of all the most dangerous things he had heard of, either as a ninja, or as a wizard, this had to take top spot on his weird-o-meter.

"…It's a _book_." Harry pointed out incredulously.

"What?" Ron flushed, but pressed on anyway, giving the diary apprehensive glances anyway. "You'd be surprised. Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated Dad's told me – there's one that burns your eyes out! And everyone who's read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives."

That actually sounded kind of cool, though Harry was sure that it would get annoying after a while. Ron was still continuing his rant anyway, despite Harry's already waning interest.

"And some old witch in Bath had a book you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it doing everything one handed. And-" However, Harry had already picked up the book by this point and was flicking through it. "Are you even listening to me?"

Harry ignored him however as his eyes landed on the date – a date that indicated that this diary was 50 years old! If that was the case…perhaps this 'T.' might know something about what had happened back then? However, as he flipped through it, there was nothing in the book, even when he activated his Sharingan when the others weren't looking to look for hints of writing that might have been washed off when it got thrown into the water. But there was also an odd feeling that Harry felt as his hand had first closed on the book, and was clear as day when he used his Sharingan.

_Why would a book have chakra?_

Harry slipped the diary away. He was going to have to look into this further. There was something about this book and Harry had a strange feeling that it had something to do with the information they might need, or at least could possibly hold information about the very thing that had brought their own investigations to a stand still.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

As desperately as Hermione tried when they showed her the diary later, the diary just didn't seem to want to spill its secrets. Hermione had tried certain spells, a revealer she had bought in Diagon Alley that did the opposite of an eraser by revealing whatever had been erased previously, but just like Harry, Hermione hadn't managed to get any secrets out of the diary yet. It was frustrating. However, Harry wasn't going to give up, and continued investigating it long after the others had gone up to bed. It wasn't until he had practically fallen asleep sitting up and managed to knock over an ink pot that Hermione had left on the desk in the common room earlier, however, that Harry really got anywhere.

"Shimatta!" Harry swore, scrambling to get the ink pot up before the ink completely swamped the diary. However, rather than forever staining the page inky blue, the ink was….absorbed?

Pausing, Harry frown and looked closer, picking up a quill and dipping it into some of the ink, before letting it drip onto the page. The ink made a blot on the page, but moments later, that too was sucked into the page and Harry's eyebrows lifted. Maybe this was the diary's secret? He guessed it wouldn't hurt to give it a go, even if it later proved to be nothing. It wasn't like he had any other ideas. He just really hoped this wasn't some weird trick diary that you were just unable to write in, but with the fact the diary had chakra, then maybe….

Harry hesitated a moment, then wrote carefully in English, 'Hello', before waiting, watching as the ink was absorbed into the diary. He waited a few moments, and was about to slam the diary shut in disgust when words began to appear on the page, in completely different hand writing to his own.

_-Hello. Who are you?- _

Harry stared at the words in front of him. Sure he heard of people writing in diaries. Hell, the medic ninja had suggested it to Harry and Sasuke to help with coping at one point – not that either took them up on that – however, he'd never heard of diaries that wrote back. Still, this seemed promising.

_-I'm Harry-_ he wrote back. He wasn't about to tell a sentient diary his full name, however, just in case what Ron said about dangerous books came back to haunt him later.

_-Hello, Harry-_ the diary said after a moment. _–I'm Tom Riddle. How did you come by this diary?-_

_-Someone tried to flush it down a toilet-_ Harry wrote back with a shrug. It wasn't like that was anything too classified or anything. Still, Tom Riddle? He assumed T.M. Riddle must be this person. Did that mean it sucked people into the book, or was there some weird spell on it?

_-Lucky that I recorded my Memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who wouldn't want this diary read-_

_-There's nothing in it to read even if people wanted to-_

_-Heh, I suppose you're right. Still, what I meant was that this diary contains memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry-_

_-Anything in those memories about the Chamber of Secrets?- _Harry wrote back, mind running a mile a minute. Of course, a talking sentient diary wasn't something he was going to trust with his life, but even lies were informative.

_-Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it didn't exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A Story was given out that the girl died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned.-_

Harry couldn't help but frown. Why would they not imprison the culprit that actually got a student killed and many others attacked? And from how 'Tom' was 'talking', it didn't seem like the culprit was executed either – that he was still alive and free. Something odd was going on here.

_-It's happening again now-_ Harry wrote back, carefully wording it. _–there've been three attacks already, though no one's been killed yet. Who was the person you caught?-_

_-I can show you if you like-_ Came Riddle's reply _–You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him.-_

Harry's eyebrows shot up a moment at that, before his eyes narrowed moments later. Did the diary think he was stupid? Ron had warned him how even books in this world could be dangerous, and as a Ninja he knew not to trust anything at face value, especially a book with its own chakra signature. And for some reason, Harry couldn't bring himself to trust it either. His instincts were on red alert, as though he recognised the chakra from the diary from somewhere, but just couldn't place it.

_-Let me show you- _the Diary insisted.

_-Let me get this straight-_ Harry wrote back, his incredulousness palpable in the words _–You want me to trust you, a faceless stranger that's a talking diary of all things, to absorb me into a diary? Do you think I'm an idiot? How do I know that isn't how you got stuck in there in the first place?-_

There was a long moment when there was no reply from the diary, before finally, words appeared once more. _-…Are you a slytherin?-_

_-No-_

_-…Are you sure?-_

_-I think I know what my own house is-_ Harry wrote back irritably. He was starting to get irritated by this waste of trees beating around the bush _–Look, just tell me in words will you. What attacked that girl?-_

_-The monster was a hideous beast. It had a vast hairy body and a tangle of black legs. It was like a gigantic spider-like creature, with gleaming eyes and razor sharp pincers. I attempted to kill it, but it ran off. When I went to follow it, a student stopped me – the heir. Naturally, I turned him in-_

Harry's frown deepened. A Giant Spider. Slytherin - who's house symbol was a Serpant and with the same ability to talk to snakes as Harry – chose a _Spider_ as his monster? Harry really was getting suspicious now, but allowed the shifty book to think he had been fooled.

_-And the heir?-_

_-Rubeus Hagrid-_

"Hm…" Harry snapped the book shut in one hand. Somehow, Harry was sure that things just didn't add up here. _This is really suspicious…_the book had been far too eager to share what it knew. Far too eager to have Harry trust it. Could it be that the Diary was trying to cover up the truth? The spider monster, telling Harry that it was Hagrid, a man who had been close friends with him, Ron and Hermione, who was Muggleborn herself, for a year? It didn't add up. Harry was sure that he had just added yet another piece to this already complicated puzzle.

**To Be Continued…**

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_**Translation List:**_

_(all Japanese words used in this chapter that are not present here have already been translated in other chapters.)_

_Shimatta! – Roughly translates to 'darn it!', 'Oh no!', 'Uh oh!', 'Shoot!' etc. It's more of an interjection than an actual word. It sometimes gets translated to a swear word too that you might say if you, for example, dropped something expensive._

_Also, for those who are interested, Mamushi's name actually means 'Viper' in Japanese._

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_Long time no see! Sorry again for my slow update rate. As previously said though if I was going to stop this story, I'd definitely put up some kind of notice, especially considering that Uchiha Potter is my most popular story. But I'll say again, I most certainly am NOT giving up on this story. Life's just busy, plus again, I'll admit that Chamber of Secrets has never been my favourite of the Harry Potter books, so it's been difficult to get my thoughts in order of how to work things. Oddly I know what I want to happen in the battle with the Basilisk, but before then I was a bit unsure, so most of this chapter was just what ideas sprung up when I actually got around to typing things. I hope it all makes sense. It did to me when I read it over, but…_

_As you can see, there are some divergences from HP cannon here (as I was expecting it would and as people hoped it might). Harry is a trained ninja, and as such he's got more practice in putting things together. Plus, the Snake summons actually got to get into the plot. I hope that I was able to portray a small snake summon well. There's never been one that has appeared in Naruto that actually got a talking roll other than Manda after all. Sorry for there being not Naruto and Sasuke at Hogwarts for Christmas, but as Harry said, the two of them might be targeted, and we must remember that Harry is very protective of those brothers of his. Hope people aren't too disappointed, but I couldn't see them logically bringing the two of them to Hogwarts with a Monster on the loose._

_I hope the Lockhart abuse cheered you up though!_

_And I'm aware that things have been pushed forwards ever so slightly, so some things are a bit out of order, but that is for a reason. It might be somewhat out of order next chapter too, depending on how Harry puts things together etc etc. On a better note though, Next Chapter should be the last in the Chamber of Secrets part! I hope that I live up to everyone's expectations for the climax._

_Anyway, I'm hoping that the next chapter will be out faster than the time it took between this chapter and last, mainly because I seem to be back into the swing of writing. Lets hope that the dreaded Writers Block remains absent for a while. You can help by reviewing!_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **If things were dangerous before, they definitely are now. As the mystery begins to come together**, **the heir's plans begin to go into overdrive, and the Chamber itself becomes the battleground for the sake of Hogwarts itself. But with the ultimate advantage now the ultimate weakness, is there any way to even win? Next time on Uchiha Potter: Chamber of Secrets – Third Seal: Seishitsu_

_(Seishitsu = Heir)_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	18. Chapter 17: Chamber of Secrets: 3rd Seal

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_With students now being attacked, Harry and his friends began to set their plans into motion in hopes of getting some form of confession out of Malfoy. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Harry had a summon snake and a kage bunshin on Malfoy's case, they don't get any new details. Harry was suspected of being the heir by some, but finally, they get some new Intel. But they are stuck as to where to go next until a strange diary is found that seems sentient. Harry is unsure if it can be trusted however, as how can a diary have chakra? _

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Chamber of Secrets – Third Seal: Seishitsu**

"So that diary seriously said that _Hagrid_ opened the Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked for what seemed like the one hundredth time since Harry had told them what information he had got out of the diary that morning and already, Harry could feel a headache coming on from the round about conversation that they seemed to have been having. It didn't really help that Harry hadn't managed to get that much sleep at all the night before trying to work out what secrets the diary actually had.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person," Hermione suggested as they made their way towards the Great Hall for breakfast. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people…"

"How many monsters do you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"Did you want that alphabetically, or by number?" Harry quipped sarcastically. He didn't know about Ron, but he hadn't forgotten about Peeves, the Troll, or the monster plants in the greenhouses and the Devil snare that had been in the third floor corridor, or about Fluffy, or about that huge knocked out Troll that they, thankfully, didn't have to fight. Or the various things that were in the forest, the pixies that Lockhart had apparently let loose in his classroom... Not to mention the monster that was currently attacking students this year too. "Anyway, I doubt Hagrid was the real guy. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to attack Muggleborns, and even though he has weird tastes in pets, if he did try and take the monster in the chamber of walkies or whatever, I think he would have told someone if that Monster was attacking people and even killed someone. You know how loyal he is to Dumbledore-sensei. Besides, if he really was the heir from last time, don't you think he would have been locked up in whatever prison wizards have or even executed for murder?"

"Well…when you put it like that…" Ron mumbled, looking a little flustered.

"Maybe we could ask Hagrid about it?" Hermione suggested

"Hm…actually, that's probably a good idea," Harry agreed. "He probably knew that Riddle guy, so maybe he can tell us about him."

"Why would you want to know more about him?" Hermione said in surprise.

"I just don't trust that guy," Harry said bluntly. He was sure he had seen/felt that chakra before. He just couldn't remember where exactly, though he knew it wasn't good, wherever he had seen it before. "And his description of the monster doesn't add up. Why would Slytherin have a pet _Spider_ of all things? It's supposed to be a monster only Slytherin can control, so unless he could talk to spiders as well as snakes, it really doesn't add up."

"I thought he sounded like Percy to be honest," Ron admitted. "Who asked him to squeal on Hagrid anyway? But asking Hagrid about how he got expelled and about Riddle? That'll be a cheerful visit wouldn't it. 'Hi Hagrid, know anything about Riddle or anything mad and monstrous running around the castle?'" He stuck his tongue out in distaste at his own joke. "Where's that diary anyway?" he asked as they just passed by Ginny and her friends, Ron giving her a quick nod of acknowledgement as they passed. She looked rather like a deer in the headlights as she seemed to realise Harry was with him. Harry ignored her as best he could, much as he did to most annoying 'fans'.

"In my trunk," Harry shrugged. He had put a few exploding tags over the lock of the trunk to dissuade anyone from trying to get into it. "I don't think it would be a good idea carrying that thing every-"

Harry cut himself off as he pushed the door open to the Great Hall, only to find something horrible great his eyes. He could only stare in horror at the monstrosity that the Great Hall had been turned into. He hoped for a moment that the lack of sleep the night before had just got to him and he was actually still dreaming that such a nightmare could come into fruition, but when he pinched himself, it hurt and he most certainly didn't wake up. No, this was real…And unfortunately, their conversation hadn't caused them to walk into the wrong room either. He couldn't help but be further horrified at what the Great Hall had been reduced to.

The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. It was as if something large and pink had died by spontaneous explosion, followed by all its family and an army of pink clones that did the exact same thing. That was the only explanation forall these….these…

An even worse thought struck him as he realised exactly what these things were. "H-Hermione…" he said, trying to sound as calm and unemotional as possible, but it was difficult with the sudden, terrifying thought. "…What's the date today…?"

"February Fourteenth," Hermione said promptly, "Valentine's Day."

Harry turned around immediately. "I'm leaving!" He was about to make his escape, but Ron grabbed him.

"Hey, why are you leaving?" Ron growled. "If I have to put up with this…this…_Pinkness_, then so do you."

"No! Ron-kun, please! You don't understand!" Harry pleaded in vain as he was dragged into the Great Hall, where many of the boys were looking around in utter horror while many girls (even Hermione!) descended into fits of giggles (though in Hermione's case Harry wasn't sure if it was at the decorations, the boys faces, or Harry's futile attempts to get away).

Forced to sit at the table between his friends, Harry wondered as he irritably batted away the fluttering confetti if this would normally be counted as a betrayal or not.

"Should have known it was him," Ron said darkly. At Harry's questioning expression – he had been more focused on getting that damned confetti out of his hair and off his plate – Ron pointed at the head table where the teachers all seemed to have a dark aura coming off them, all directed at the one responsible. Said responsible person, who seemed completely oblivious to the utter hate that was spilling from the other teachers, was currently dressed in lurid pink robes to match the decorations and was waving for silence.

"Lockhart…" Harry growled. "I swear…._I'm_ going to kill him if that monster doesn't attack him soon…."

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all - and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps. Harry couldn't help but be struck between sympathy and further horror.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison. Harry wondered if someone could get Lockhart to ask Snape, just so they could all be put out of their misery by killing off that guy before they were all scarred for life.

"Please tell me you weren't one of the forty-six…" Ron groaned to Hermione, who was now seemingly very interested in getting herself breakfast and didn't answer. "Anyway," he turned back to Harry. "Why are you getting so worked up? I know it's horrible in here but…"

"It's not the pink, even if it's sickening," Harry groaned, head in his hands. "It's Valentine's Day…" it was practically a death sentence for Uchiha back in Konoha.

"You weren't this worked up last year," Ron pointed out.

"It's not the same…" Last year, Valentine's Day wasn't a big deal. He had laid low, but honestly, last year none of his fan girls from Konoha knew where he was and the girls at Hogwarts in his year were not quite interested in boys at that point, or at least if they were interested in him they were too in awe of him still to risk trying to give him valentines day gifts. Not to mention Valentine's Day wasn't a big deal last year, none of them pointed out that it was Valentine's Day so many of the younger students probably didn't remember. This year, however, he should already feel the eyes of the members of the 'Harry Potter Fan Club', who weren't at all put off by the rumours he might be the heir, staring at him and he really wanted to run before they tried to pounce on him.

Harry couldn't help but shiver and vowed not to be alone in dark corridors for the rest of the day, the flashing of the fans eyes made him feel like they were ready to molest him if he was on his own.

"You can stand up to tons of things without blinking yet you're scared of Valentine's Day?" Ron snorted. "You're bloody nuts, mate."

"Shut up…" Harry growled.

They were pardoned from arguing more about it when the flock of owls arrived that to deliver the morning post. However, there was definitely much more of a commotion than normal when one owl arrived with many, many little packages all tied up in a net-like sack flew through the window, barely able to pull the sack in. An owl that Harry definitely recognised. And in horror, Harry realised his Konoha fan girls had finally managed to find him.

"Duck!" Harry called, disappearing under the table as Housenka crash-landed onto the table in exhaustion from carrying such a huge load with her all the way from the hidden continent, raining boxes upon boxes of homemade chocolates upon where Harry had just been sitting. It took him a while, but Harry managed to dig his way through them to reach air once more. "How the heck did they find me?" Harry groaned, looking at all the boxes. He was going to have to find something to do with them, he wasn't even sure he could eat through all these and he could tell already by the gaping expressions from the guys around him that they would refuse to allow him to dump them either. Maybe he could give them away or something?

A groaned hoot came from Housenka, who had a letter attached to her leg that Harry quickly pulled off and read. There was a reply from the Hokage, but there was also a letter from Sasuke that he quickly read over.

_Dear Harry,_

_Last year it took me forever to sort through your valentines as well as all of mine, since they all got delivered here when they couldn't find you. If I have to deal with all this crap from fan girls then you do too!_

_Think of it as Revenge for not keeping your promise to spend time with us at Christmas._

_Happy Valentine's Day,_

_Sasuke._

"Sasuke…" Harry clenched the note in his fist, his eyebrow twitching with a scary grimace-smile on his face that already told everyone he was more likely to strangle the writer than anything else. The people around him were soon backing off and the black aura that Harry seemed to emit. "_Kisama_…"

As interesting as his day started off, it only started to get worse. It was hard to ignore the staring when Harry managed to dump the chocolates in the dorm – seriously, it would probably take him until next Valentine's day to get rid of them all! – and it was even harder to find time to actually read over what the Hokage had written to him either, as all day long, the cherub-dressed dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers. He did finally get to read it around all the constant interruptions. Basically the Hokage had mentioned that he was to fully investigate the situation, while he was currently trying to see if they could get back up to Harry if possible if the situation got any worse. That was good to know. Though he wasn't sure if it would come to that or not. Still it was good to know that there would be some help since these wizards seemed to not be putting all that much effort into the investigations. He also mentioned about keeping that diary locked up tight so that it could be fully investigated further.

Later that afternoon, however, as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Harry.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry, who already knew it was futile to escape. Sighing, he turned around to the disgruntled Dwarf."I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

"I'm not surprised you're pissed off…" Harry sighed, ignoring the murmuring of the crowd as he put his hands in his pocks. "How did Lockhart convince you guys to do this?"

"You don't wanna know," the Dwarf said gruffly, grimacing.

"My condolences."

"Thanks."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…You're still going to sing me that Valentine, aren't you…"

"Aye."

"…Damn."

Lockhart was _seriously_ going to burn in the fires of his Gokakyou no Jutsu for this.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Thankfully, Harry managed to survive Valentine's day somehow, though he did find a way to deal with all the chocolate he had been given. They made great gags for when Fred and George tried to do new renditions of the Valentine's Song that Harry had been given (from Ginny, apparently). After all, choking them with Chocolate seemed far better to having to listen to his eyes being compared to 'dark pickled toads' or whatever.

Still, things had been going well at Hogwarts. The attacks seemed to have stopped, and Harry was starting to get more and more suspicious hat the diary had something to do with it. He hadn't even heard the voice at all either. But he still didn't have concrete proof and he doubted that if Harry himself wrote in that diary and questioned Tom that the Diary would admit to anything either. Tom had framed Hagrid before (of that he was sure) and he wouldn't be surprised if Tom tried to weasel his way out of it this time too.

He should have known it was too good to last.

As soon as he saw the frantic face of his friend Neville, Harry had a sinking feeling that Murphy's law had just caught up with him.

"Harry - I don't know who did it - I just found -"

Watching Harry fearfully, Neville pushed open the door.

The room looked as though it had gone through a small explosion near Harry's bed. The hangings were somewhat singed, and as Harry's sharp eyes looked around at the mess, it seemed that everything Hogwarts related that he owned had been trashed. His pockets had all been turned inside out, papers were scatted all over the floor, his bed sheets were lying half on the floor as if they'd been pulled off in a hurry. He was almost glad that he kept everything ninja related on his person. However, he already had some idea as to what had been searched for.

"What happened here.,.?" Ron gapped as he looked over the mess.

"Obviously someone was looking for something, Ron-kun," Harry said, stepping over the torn and singed remains of Travelling with Trolls (at least the saboteur had done something useful!) Harry immediately went to his trunk and looked in the hiding place of the diary. His eyes narrowing as his hand touched nothing but the wooden bottom.

"And they found it…The diary's gone."

He was really going to have to look into sealing jutsu once he got back to Konoha. It wouldn't do to have important things stolen, especially something like this…

_But still, this has proved something. It means that it's not just the Diary at work here. There's an accomplice…_He looked around the room._ Not only that, but it means the accomplice either somehow got the password, or, more likely, is actually a Gryffindor themselves…And if attacks start now, after having been none for so long, it'll be increasingly likely that the diary itself is involved with all these attacks too._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"This is a mess…" Ron groaned as they left the Gryffindor tower sometime later after tidying up the room from the mess their thief had left behind. "I can't believe someone's taken the diary."

"My guess is the heir or an accomplice got wind of it and took it," Harry sighed. "You might want to look for people with burns on their hand or something, because there's no way they would have got into my trunk unscathed."

"What do you mean, burns?" Hermione looked at him oddly. "You booby-trap your trunk? Harry, that's dangerous. People could get hurt."

"I'm the only one who goes into my trunk normally," Harry reminded her. "And I'm not going to get caught out by my own traps. From the mess left behind, it's obvious that the thief didn't know about that trap, and I'm willing to bet they'd have got burned or something. Maybe we should check in with Madam Pomfrey. If anyone went to her with burns in the last few hours then we might be able to figure out exactly who took the diary."

"That'd be convenient if we did manage to find out that way," Ron admitted.

"And if they didn't got to Madam Pomfrey, they might have the burns still." Hermione added. "Unless they have some kind of potion or something with them…or know healing spells."

"It's better than no lead at all," Harry shrugged. "If that diary really is involved with the incidents, then getting it back is a priority, otherwise, the attacks might start again – Ron, what the heck are you doing?"

Indeed, rather than follow, Ron had suddenly jumped back and was now pressed against the wall, looking utterly horrified at something. Looking at where Ron was pointing, Harry noticed spiders. Lots of tiny spiders all practically in line, scuttling towards the windows and disappearing outside through a crack. "They're just spiders, Ron," Harry raised a brow, seeing Ron reduced to a shuddering mess against the wall.

"I – don't – like – spiders," Ron said tensely.

"I never knew that," said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times ..."

"Not to mention we've been talking about the monster being a spider a few times," Harry also pointed out, though now that he thought about it, Ron certainly seemed paler in those times. He guessed that the fact Harry was often convincing them it was unlikely to be a spider monster that Ron had yet to really react further than being a little pale.

"I don't mind them dead," said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move ..."

Hermione giggled.

"It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my - my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick ... You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and…" He broke off, shuddering.

Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh, but she turned her attention back to the spiders anyway to avoid Ron noticing the way her lips kept twitching. Harry rolled his eyes. Sounded like something those guys would do. He was glad that he had been the Uchiha Oddball of the family, because at least there hadn't been a situation where his things got genjutsu put on them to give him such a dumb fear. Still…

"Mind you," Harry said as he followed the trail of Spiders with his eyes. "I've never seen spiders act like that before. It's almost like they're in a hurry to get out of this place..."

The sound of a gasp brought Harry out of his thoughts and he glanced up at her. Her eyes were impossibly wide, her hand shot up to her mouth and Harry was sure he saw a light bulb had just turned on above her head or something as some puzzle had just clicked into place. "…What?"

"I think I've just worked it out!" Hermione said. "You guys go on ahead to check out the Hospital Wing. I just have to go to the Library really quick, just to make sure!" And she sprinted away before either of them could say anything.

"…What was that all about?" Ron asked.

"Ask her later," Harry said. "If it's really important to finding out about this Chamber of secrets thing she'll tell us once she's sorted things out herself. You know how she is. Right now we need to find out if our thief has gone to the Hospital wing or not." Harry added, grabbing Ron and pulling him along with him so that he wouldn't freak out over the parade of spiders.

Once they got to the Hospital Wing, they found Madam Pomfrey checking over a stock of some kind of potion vials in the glass-front cupboard. Glancing around, he could only see the curtain covered beds where the Petrified victims were hidden behind, but as of yet, he couldn't see anyone who was new, or any new curtains covering any beds either. So either the thief hadn't been there, or had already left.

"Po- Uchiha, what are you doing here?" Madam Pomfrey said as she noticed the two students standing there, managing to correct herself as to the surname Harry preferred to be known by. "Don't tell me you've got yourself injured again-"

"No, no, nothing like that," Harry laughed, rubbing the back of his head, waving it off. "Actually, I just wanted to check that there hadn't been a person coming in here who was burned. There was an accident in Potions earlier on today, you see, and they were told to come here. I was just wondering how they were."

"A person with burns?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "No, no ones come here today. So there's someone walking around burned somewhere. How irresponsible. Why they won't just come here…" she descended into some kind of rant where Harry was sure he picked up 'Stupidity of kids who think they know better than the school healer' and he was sure he heard her mention something along the lines of hoping they didn't ask Lockhart to help them.

So that meant that there was indeed someone walking around the school who had some kind of burns on them, then. Perhaps they thought that they would be asked too many questions if they came forward and so was going to try and keep them to themselves? They were going to have to be extra vigilant then.

_"Kill this time ... let me rip ... tear. . ."_

Harry blenched, thoughts of the thief leaving his head, quickly looking around. That voice…he heard that voice again, which meant….

"Shimatta!" Harry bolted. There was another attack about to happen!

"Wait, Harry, where are you going?" Ron called after him, before shooting an apology over to Madam Pomfrey and darting after Harry, "What's going on?"

"That voice…I heard it again," Harry shot back.

"You mean there's going to be another attack?" yelped Ron.

"Its heading towards the Library-" Harry realised exactly what he just said and whatever colour Harry had left in his face drained rapidly as his chest tightened with horror, looking at Ron, he looked no better as they came to the same horrified realisation.

"Hermione!"

Looking back on it, Harry was sure that that was the fastest Harry had ever moved from one side of the castle to the other. Even more impressively was that it was likely the fastest that _Ron_ had moved from one side of the castle to another. But even with the inhuman speed born of panic, it still felt that it had taken far longer than it ever should have. They practically crashed into Professor McGonagall, who was just exiting the Library in that one moment, grim faced and pale.

"Mr Uchiha, Mr Weasley-" McGonagall started, but Harry cut her off before she could tell them off for practically running her over.

"M-McGonagall-sensei…H-have you seen Hermione?"

It was the fastest that Harry had ever seen blood flee from someone's face before and he would have been completely interested in that fact if it wasn't for the sinking feeling of dread that began to settle in his stomach at the uncomfortable look that suddenly graced their teacher's face.

"…You two should come with me….but I warn you…it'll be something of a shock…You see….there's been a double attack…"

And as McGonagall lead them into the Library to one of the isles and the sight of Hermione, eyes glassy and body still as stone met their gazes, alongside a girl he didn't know, as Harry could only kneel down beside his friend and touch the cold stiff hand that clutched a mirror while McGonagall was already beginning to give orders to make a school wide announcement, Harry could only feel, for the first time in four years that he had completely failed to protect one of his precious people once again.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

Gryffindor tower was the most tense it had ever been following Professor McGonagall's announcement that evening. Already conspiracy theories about how all the Slytherins should be expelled were going around and for once, Percy Weasley had yet to say a thing to bring around any order, too pale and stunned to even move from the chair he had sunk into when McGonagall had made her formal announcement about the attacks on Hermione and the Ravenclaw girl that had also been Petrified.

"Percy's in shock," George told Harry quietly, for once quite serious, likely knowing the state their prank buddy and younger brother were in concerning Hermione. "That Ravenclaw girl - Penelope Clearwater - she's a prefect. I don't think he thought the monster would dare attack a prefect."

As much as Harry normally might have scoffed that that was a ridiculous notion and that anyone could get attacked, Harry felt too awful to really care about that right now. It was hard to really start joking around when one of your close friends had just been attacked, the image of her lying in the Hospital wing right now, eyes wide and staring, unmoving as if carved from stone had been gouged into his brain as if he had stared at her with his Sharingan active for a good hour. Even harder when he was reminded that he could have stopped her. He could have insisted they look at it together after they had checked out the hospital wing… What kind of failure was he that he couldn't even save one of his friends from such a fate? It was even worse that when he hadn't been able to protect Sasuke. Art that time they had been severely shocked, betrayed and outclassed, too young and untrained to really be able to fully protect themselves. This time he was a fully ninja, and knew better, even half expected the attacks might restart with the diary stolen.

He couldn't help but grip his hair in his hands.

_I'm such an idiot…_

"What are we going to do…?" Ron murmured, concerned. "Do you think that they think Hagrid did this?"

Harry wrenched himself from his mental beat down. That's right. They couldn't sit here brooding about it. Hermione would certainly be angry with them, and sitting around wasn't going to help her and the others who had been attacked. "…They might do…if what Tom did is known by the other teachers here…We're going to have to find out what the truth is…We'll need to talk to Hagrid and figure out if that Tom character is as involved as we think he is. And if Tom was trying to use Hagrid as a scapegoat, its possible that he might know where the Chamber is and that's why Tom picked him – to get rid of the witness…?"

"But McGonagall said we've got to stay in our tower unless we're in class -"

"This is a bit more important than what sensei said," Harry said, clenching his hands on his knees. "Besides, if we can find out if Tom really was behind all this then we can get all this sorted out for everyone who's already been attacked or who are still targets. Besides, we have my Tousan's cloak, remember?"

The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. Harry, who had wandered the castle at night several times before, either it being personal 'mission' related like when he had Hermione had helped to smuggle away Norbert, or when Harry had been sneaking out to train in the early hours of the morning, had never seen it so crowded after sunset. Teachers, prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. Harry wouldn't have had so many problems if it wasn't the fact that he had Ron with him, who was far less used to sneaking about and was unable to use any kind of chakra or ninja ability like Harry could. The Invisibility Cloak didn't stop them making any noise, and there was a particularly tense moment when Ron stubbed his toe only yards from the spot where Snape stood standing guard. Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the moment Ron swore.

Harry was surprised that they actually managed to get out of the castle without Ron giving them both away. Still, Ron was at least somewhat sheepish when Harry glared at him for so many tense moments. Why had be brought Ron along when they needed to be silent?

It was a clear, starry night. They hurried toward the lit windows of Hagrid's house and pulled off the cloak only when they were right outside his front door. Seconds after they had knocked, Hagrid flung it open. They found themselves face-to-face with him aiming a crossbow at them. Fang the boarhound barked loudly behind him. Harry held up his hands in the universal surrender position.

"Oh," the giant man said, lowering the weapon and staring at them. "What're you two doin' here?"

Harry frowned slightly as he lowered his hands. Hagrid was normally a pretty nice guy and rather laid back from what Harry had gathered the previous year. It was almost shocking to see how nervous and, if Harry was to say so, terrified seeming, even if he was hiding it the best he could. It was hard to hide the nervous glint in his black-beetle eyes.

"We just wanted to ask you something about someone…Did you think we were Slytherin's monster or something?"

"Oh….no…Jus' bin expectin'…doesn' matter - Sit down - I'll make tea -"

He hardly seemed to know what he was doing. He nearly extinguished the fire, spilling water from the kettle on it, and then smashed the teapot with a nervous jerk of his massive hand. Harry's eyebrows really did raise at that. Really, Hagrid was terrified. It was surprising to see the normally brave man reduced to a nervous wreck.

"Are you alright, Hagrid?" Harry asked tentatively. "I guess you….heard about Hermione…?

"Oh, I heard, all righ'," said Hagrid, a slight break in his voice. He kept glancing nervously at the windows.

"You know, we're not accusing you or anything," Harry insisted. "We actually wanted to know a bit of information about Tom Ri-

The knock on the door interrupted Harry, who cursed as he realised that if whoever was out there saw them they would get in big trouble. Hagrid, who had been about to pour out hot water into cups (he forgot to add tea bags in the state he was in), dropped the teapot with a crash. As one, Harry grabbed Ron and pulled them into the shadows, flinging the invisibility cloak about their shoulder while Hagrid, trembling from head to foot by this point, answered the door.

"Good evening, Hagrid."

It was Dumbledore, looking surprisingly serious – Harry couldn't remember Sandaime's friend ever looking as serious as he was then in the times that Harry had conversed with the man, entered, followed by a second, very odd-looking man that Harry hadn't seen before. The stranger had rumpled grey hair and an anxious expression, and was wearing a strange mixture of clothes: a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak, and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime-green bowler. Harry had the distinct impression that the man was some kind of politician, with really bad taste in clothing.

"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed next to him. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry couldn't believe what he had been hearing as the conversation took place, but he should have known really. After all, most ninja by the time they had left the academy knew that civilian leaders tended to have the common sense of a toothbrush. They had to learn this, considering that they would have to learn to put up with them when hired by them for ridiculous tasks, like finding the Fire Country Daimyou's Wife's demon cat Tora and other such demeaning missions. But this 'Cornelius Fudge' had outright said the only reason they were even detaining Hagrid was to make it seem like the Ministry was 'doing something'. It was only his self control that was keeping him from storming out there and bitch-slapping the man or punching him through the door for being a conceited idiot.

Speaking of conceited idiots…

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," Lucius Malfoy, who it seemed was a part of this farce as well (Harry hadn't even realised the man was in the government, though he guessed he should have known), said lazily, taking out a long roll of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension - you'll find all twelve signatures on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate, there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what an awful loss that would be to the school." He finished, smirking coldly.

Somehow, the Hyuuga-sickly Yamanaka hybrid man managed to make that last sentence seem both mockingly sorrowful and sneeringly gleeful, but Harry had a feeling that Fudge was completely dense to the sound. Once more, Harry was reminded of just how much of a douche that the man was. Harry gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. How would getting the Headmaster to leave the school help things out? Even Fudge, who didn't seem the sharpest kunai in the box, seemed to think it was a bad idea. Harry couldn't blame him. Sarutobi often spoke about Dumbledore with respect as a friend. Surely he couldn't possibly think of going along with Lucius and stepping down at a time like-

"If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside -"

Harry gaped at that, his eyes widened. _What the hell are you thinking?_

"-But, you should know," Dumbledore continued confidently, "that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

For a second, Harry was almost sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered towards the corner where he and Ron stood hidden. Harry stiffened. Was it possible that Dumbledore actually knew they were there? Could he sense chakra, perhaps? He checked the others in the room, but no one else seemed to have noticed, nor did they seem to have any idea that anyone but them were in Hagrid's house at that moment. Still, he was going to have to ask about that, otherwise Dumbledore was going to surely make him paranoid in the future – if Dumbledore was even allowed to return, that was.

"Admirable sentiments," Lucius said bowing, though to Harry it seemed more mocking than anything else. "We shall all miss your – er – highly individual way of running things, Albus, and only hope that your success will manage to prevent any – ah – _"killin's"_." he added, mimicking Hagrid's speak pattern from when Hagrid had (rightly) protested at Dumbledore's removal only a few minutes earlier.

He strode to the cabin door, opened it and bowed Dumbledore out. Fudge, fiddling with his bowler, waited for Hagrid to go ahead of him, but Hagrid stood his ground, took a deep breath and said carefully, "If anyone wanted ter find out some _stuff_, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the _spiders_. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'."

As Hagrid and Fudge finally left the room, Harry couldn't help but think that that had been the most obvious and at the same time completely absurd things that Hagrid could have possibly said. It was a good job that Fudge, though confused, had been a complete idiot, otherwise he surely would have suspected something was going on and found Ron and Harry hiding there. They'd have never made it in the ninja world. 'Follow the Spiders', honestly!

…wait…

Spiders…He couldn't help but think of the parade of spiders that they had seen earlier on that day. Couldn't help but remember Hermione had made some kind of realisation over them. And in that moment, the pieces of the puzzle began to slot into place.

Harry smacked his forehead, stunned by his own realisation.

"I'm such an idiot!"

"Uh…what?" Ron asked nervously, startled by Harry's sudden movement of self inflicted pain.

"I've just realised what it was Hermione had worked out," Harry Said, grabbing Ron's arm. "And if I'm right…I think I might have just worked out what our monster is. Come on!"

With that, Harry dragged Ron back as fast as possible under the invisibility cloak. Ron, bemused, followed him, thankfully remembering that questioning Harry when they needed to sneak back to the common room was a bad idea.

People had already gone up to bed by the time they got back to the common room and Harry pulled the cloak off once more. Quickly, he hurried up to the room and pulled out 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' – thankfully, it had avoided being damaged by the thievery earlier on – and brought it back down stairs where Ron was standing, bemused.

"Remember when Hermione and I were trying to work out what the monster was that was petrifying the students, but we couldn't come to any conclusions because of the possibilities of other creatures, or even some kind of experimental hybrid was the monster unless one of the distinct characteristics of one of the monsters came out?" Harry said as he began to flip through the pages. "Well, the spiders that we saw, they are one of those characteristics matching one of the monsters in here that we thought it could be." He slammed the book down on the table so that Ron could look at the page.

"A Basilisk," Harry said grimly.

"A Basilisk?" Ron breathed. "Are you sure…?"

"Definitely," Harry nodded. "Listen to this: _Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it._

"I knew it had to be some kind of Snake," Harry said, clenching his fist. "'A monster only Slytherin could control' – he was famous for his ability to talk to snakes. Hell, his house symbol is a snake! That's why I could hear the voice that no one else could hear, because I can speak Parseltongue. The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died - because no one looked it straight in the eye. Camera-Boy saw it through his camera and the basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but the brat just got Petrified. That Justin guy must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again, he's a ghost after all. As for Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect…When we saw them in the Library after they got attacked, they had that mirror. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you my hitae ate that she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first. That girl pulled out her mirror and ended up in the state that they were found."

Ron's jaw had dropped.

"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.

"Well, think about that night, the floor was soaked because of Myrtle. That cat must have seen the Basilisk by the reflection in the water. When you add all this into the fact that the spiders were all fleeing the castle too, it all fits!"

"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A bloody giant snake . . . Someone would've seen it…"

"Considering how the voice was moving," Harry said, thinking it over, "Its likely its going through the plumbing in the castle. And if that's the case…Damn, I think I've worked out where the chamber entrance might be too!" he gasped, eyes widening. "A girl was killed last time. There's one ghost in the castle that looks like a student. A _female_ student."

"Moaning Myrtle?" Ron breathed.

Harry slammed the book shut. "Bingo."

"Bloody hell!"

"We've got to tell the teachers," Harry said grimly, talking the book under his arm, heading towards the portrait hole. "I know that Dumbledore-sensei is gone by now, but there's still some competent teachers around that'd know how to deal with a giant snake with killer eyes. And if we're right about where the chamber is, we'll be able to get it locked up before anyone actually gets killed."

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute!" Ron said quickly, grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him back. "We can't just go marching out there and this time! If we go out there now, the teachers'll just think that we're making something up to try and get ourselves out of trouble. Let's wait until the morning and we can tell them. They'd be more likely to believe us then."

"But...but…kuso…" Harry sighed, no longer straining against Ron. When did Ron get so smart? He had a point, unfortunately. But still, he couldn't help but feel like he was just wasting time. "Alright... But we tell them first thing in the morning," Harry insisted.

That night had never seemed so long. And the last thing that Harry could do was make himself sleep.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Getting around to actually telling the teachers what they had learned, however, was easier said than done. Though they were escorted to and from classes by teachers, none of them seemed to be willing to talk and sometimes it was impossible to even get to the teachers, because the students were huddled close together, too close to squeeze through them, in hopes of some form of protection, as if staying so close they were practically standing on each others toes would form some kind of force-field around them. It was a ridiculous time for civilian 'herd' like stupidity to come to the forefront.

By the time lunch had arrived, Harry was at the point where he wanted to smack his head repeatedly on the table.

"This…is…ridiculous…" Harry snarled from where he had buried his head in his arms. "How is it that you can have teachers with you all the damned time and you can't even get two words in edgeways to anyone competent?" Lockhart so didn't count, even if he was the most inappropriately chatty of the lot of them – Harry had had to stop himself from stabbing the man to death five times already that day.

"Um…"

Harry blinked and looked up from his arms to find Ginny Weasley hovering at the near the table. She froze a moment, knowing on her lip before finally slipping into the seat across from him. Harry blinked. Despite the fact he had seen Ginny several times over the school year (usually trying to avoid her or the 'Harry Potter Fan Club') he hadn't realised prior to this that Ginny looked stressed, tense and jumpy, her face pale and drawn as if she hadn't been sleeping or eating properly of late. She appeared to be fiddling with her hands in her lap under the table.

"What's up?" asked Ron as he helped himself to one of the pies.

Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of someone, though he couldn't think who. Harry definitely sat up straighter. Somehow, he had a feeling this had to be important.

"Spit it out," said Ron, watching her.

Harry suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information during those few times that the House Elf had tried to warn him away from Hogwarts

"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.

"What is it?" said Harry, keeping his voice as calm and soothing as possible. He felt if he said anything or did anything too suddenly, she would flee like a frightened rabbit. She seemed to try to say something several times, but nothing came out. Carefully, Harry leaned forwards and whispered so only she and Ron could hear. "Is this something to do with the Chamber?" He didn't know why, but that was the only thing he could think she would want to tell him. He highly doubted that this was some fangirlish love confession, not when she looked so deathly serious.

Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."

Ginny jumped up as if electrocuted and, shooting one last frightened glance at Harry and Ron, she disappeared out of the hall - but not before Harry noticed the bandages on her hands. Harry's heart lurched.

_Ginny is…!_

"Wait!" Harry yelled, standing up, but the girl had already vanished. Snarling, Harry whipped around to Percy who had just frozen in the middle of reaching for a casserole, looking at him in surprise. Not really surprising. Harry normally came across as a laid back and easy going kind of guy around the student population. "Teme…" Harry hissed, a hairs breath away from descending into Parseltongue. "You're a freaking _idiot_! Bakayaro!"

He couldn't believe it. Ginny had been the one who stole the diary from his trunk. How was he going to break this to Ron?

Maybe if they hurried, they'd be able to find Ginny again in the common room that evening and Harry would finally be able to get the full picture about what was going on. Not to mention that they still needed to tell the teachers what was going on as well…

Unfortunately, once again, things didn't quite work out the way they wanted. Sure they managed to ditch Lockhart a little before break time, and made their way to the Teachers lounge where they'd finally get their undivided attention, when the announcement happened:

"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teach ers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."

"Another attack?" Ron groaned. "What should we do…?"

"We're already here," Harry said. "In the wardrobe. We can find out what's going on and tell them what we know."

Moments after they had hidden in the wardrobe, the door open only a slither fo that Harry could see something of what was going on, the door opened sharply, the teachers entering before McGonagall spoke, voice shaky.

"It has happened," McGonagall told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Flitwick let out a squeal and Sprout hands clasped over her mouth. Even Snape, who most people considered heartless, reacted, gripping the back of his chair, knuckles turning white. "How can you be sure?" he demanded.

"The Heir of Slytherin has left another message." McGonagall said, her face whiter than Harry had ever seen it before. "Right underneath the first… 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'."

Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasely."

Harry almost cursed if it wasn't for his self control as he felt Ron sink to the bottom of the wardrobe. He knew what Ron must have felt like, having himself felt the utter despair of losing family members, believing his younger 'brother' to be in danger of death. Not to mention Ron had been the one to suggest that Harry wait until the next day to give the information over. He could only guess how guilty he must feel for it.

But Harry felt an even worse feeling. After all, Ginny had been the one to steal the diary, but it seemed like she had wanted to turn herself in too. Had she been manipulated somehow? Had she been taken away because she was going to betray that information? He definitely didn't get the feeling she had been acting before. Still, if only Percy hadn't interrupted them…

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," Professor McGonagall said miserably. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"

The door burst open and the moment Harry saw who it was he had to stop himself from jumping out there and wringing the man's neck. How the hell could he be smiling like a freaking idiot at a time like this!

"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?" Lockhart asked cheerfully, beaming.

If looks could Kill, Lockhart would have died many, many times, been brought back to life several more times, just so he could be killed in many, many more painful ways. If that were humanly possible, Harry would have gladly joined in.

Surprisingly, it was Snape who covered up his complete and utter hate of the man the fastest and stepped forwards, an almost evil glint in his usually cold dark eyes. "Just the man," Snape said snidely. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched.

Harry had just found his new hero.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout, quickly realising what was going on and happy to make Lockhart's life hell. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I - well, I -"sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick (Harry knew there was a reason he had liked this man)

"D-did I. I don't recall -"

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues, looking as if he were searching for some kind of help from someone. It never came.

"I - I really never - you may have misunderstood -"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall smiling so sweetly that it was a little scary. Harry couldn't help but think that Anko would have greatly approved. Harry certainly did. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gulped, whatever had been left of his Bishounen-like appearance had suddenly vanished as if a spell had been broken. All Harry could see now was a weak chinned man, terrified and feeble.

"V-very well. I'll - I'll be in my office, getting... getting ready."

And he left the room.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."

The teachers rose and left, one by one.

Once the room was empty, Harry pushed the door open and stepped out, glancing back at where Ron was kneeling on the floor, palms pressed against the floor, head bowed. His heart tightened in sympathy as he heard a faint, almost inaudible sob.

"...Ginny..."

"Ron…I…" Harry started, but he didn't know what to say to his distressed friend. What could he say? That everything would be alright? No, as much as Harry messed around and joked at times, Harry knew the darker side of life, every ninja did, and those that didn't were just living in denial. He was still a realist. What could he possibly say that would comfort him when the only things he knew were that Ginny was either an accomplice to the heir (be it willingly or by force), or that it was possible that she was dead, neither things would comfort his red-haired friend.

But at the same time…there had to be something they could do. Harry was never one to give up. There might still be some slim chance that the girl was still alive. Sure Ginny was a fangirl, but she was Ron's little sister, and as much as Harry had run away from his fans, or tricked them, or ranted about them, he had never wished any of them dead.

"She knew something, Harry," said Ron, shakily. Harry was silently impressed at how well he hid the tearfulness from his voice. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was -" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically, ridding himself of tears before they could fully form. "I mean, she was a pureblood. There can't be any other reason."

Harry stomped down on the impulse to tell him she could have had a hand in helping the attacks. He was blunt by nature, but he had tact.

"Harry" said Ron, looking up at him with overly bright eyes, and Harry had a horrible feeling he was looking to him for comfort, for some kind of strength. "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not – you know -" He couldn't even finish that thought.

"There's…a chance…" Harry said after a moment, unable to stand the utter misery on his friends face, or the hopes for some form of confirmation that his sister had to be alive. _A slim, slim chance…but still, _he thought as he thought back to that night when every Uchiha had been killed, but he and Sasuke, the 'weakest' of the Uchiha, had been left alive. _Stranger things have happened._

"D'you know what?" said Ron, forcing himself to stand up with a new determination brought on by Harry's words. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Harry couldn't help but look at his friend incredulously.

…_It's got to be the grief talking. There's no way that Ron just suggested what I think he's suggesting…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_Dammit, he was suggesting what I thought he was suggesting!_

Harry couldn't believe he was willingly at the door to Lockhart's office, actually even considering telling the worst teacher out there their knowledge. When he thought of competent teachers, this was the last thing he would have considered even if Lockhart were the last teacher alive. But his friend was currently filled with grief and unlikely to listen to reason, so the best Harry could do was go along and make sure that he didn't hurt himself.

Without knocking, Harry shoved open the door, only to pause as Lockhart whipped around from his trunk, eyes wide with a look that he had just been caught doing something that he certainly shouldn't have been doing. Indeed, as Harry looked around, seeing the posters and pictures of himself had been taken from the walls, crammed hurriedly into boxes on his desk, robes of many different colours folded hurriedly, thrown haphazardly into his trunk.

Something dark clenched in his chest.

"Going somewhere?" he asked mildly, though there was a definite, dangerous undertone that made Ron stiffen beside him, though whether it was because he had realised the same truth Harry had come to, or if it was from the practically deadly undertone in his voice, he didn't know. Nor did he care right now, his rage, held back from all the stupid moments that Lockhart had put him through since meeting him fighting to escape, his self control wavering in the realisation of exactly what Lockhart was up to.

_Deserter…_

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call - unavoidable - got to go -"

"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I -"

_Betrayer…_

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Harry said, hands curling into fists. It was hard, so hard to keep his voice steady as his nails dug into his palms. "Are you seriously going to pathetically flee like some cowardly, lowlife trash?" He couldn't help the growl that forced his way to the front at that

"Well - I must say - when I took the job -" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description - didn't expect -"

"You're running away," Harry snarled. "You're abandoning your duty! So you can take the fame when the weather's fine, but as soon as the storm hits, you run away! I bet everything you've ever even written was a lie! You're a complete fake! A Phoney! A-"

_Traitor…_

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry at if this were the first time he'd really seen him. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think Id done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. Besides, it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."

He pulled out his wand and turned to them.

"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book -"

However, before Lockhart could even move, Harry broke. Gone was his need for secrecy, gone was his rationality, Harry just wanted to slaughter the man before him. Before Lockhart even managed to move his wand an inch, Harry lept over the desk and attacked, knocking the man straight back against the wall, knocking the breath out of him, sending his wand flying away from him. One hand clasped around the man's neck, the other holding a kunai and holding the blade dangerously close to the man's throat. And as Lockhart looked into Harry's eyes, he could see fear, absolute terror reflected in the blue orbs as they fixed on the deep crimson of Harry's Sharingan eyes.

He heard Ron somehow recover from any form of shock and fling Lockhart's wand out of the window, rendering Lockhart completely powerless, and helpless in front of Harry's wrath.

The man whimpered.

"You weak trash," Harry snarled. He couldn't stand any kind of betrayal. After Itachi, betrayal was one of the top things that could infuriate the last Uchihas. "I knew you were useless…but you're a freaking coward on top of it!"

"But what would you have me do…?" Lockhart whimpered, legs giving out from under him and he slid down the wall, looking remarkably small and vulnerable all of a sudden. Harry found he couldn't bring himself to pity the man though. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do…"

"Well, you're in luck," Harry said, grabbing the front of the man's robes, an Ankoish grin spreading on his face. "We happen to know where the chamber is, and what's inside it. If nothing else you'll make a good meat shield. Let's go. Move it."

"Harry…" Ron said as he managed to half run to keep pace with his friend, who was dragging Lockhart by his robes, not caring if the man stumbled or if he was dragged, or if he smacked himself on the stone steps. "You're scary sometimes. Brilliant…but scary...Really, really scary…"

**To Be Continued…**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_**Translation List:**_

_(all Japanese words used in this chapter that are not present here have already been translated in other chapters.)_

_Kisama – another impolite way of addressing someone. Though often translated out as 'Damn you', or 'Bastard'_

_Bakayaro – a more vulgar, harsher way of calling someone an idiot, sometimes translated out to 'Dumbass'_

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_Dammit, I'd been hoping to get the last part of the Chamber of Secrets into this one chapter, but I was already at 23 pages long. No way I could have finished it all without the chapter being any more ridiculously long than it was. I guess my preview was a little premature last chapter, but honestly, I didn't think it would be this long. I think the Valentine's Day incident threw me off, and the changes in how Harry got to the conclusion of the truth. If everything was closer to cannon, I could have skipped more, but I just felt I couldn't skip that much here, because of how things differ. All this happened earlier than in canon (apart from the finding of the diary) so obviously things differ in their order somewhat._

_The title still fits though, ironically, considering Harry discovered Ginny was involved and considered Tom's involvement. Technically the chapter was all about the heir, or rather, the heir and its host._

_Some people weren't sure how Ginny could find the diary was with Harry. If you find the point it happened at, you get an E-cookie._

_I know that Harry went pretty dark near the end. However, there were reasons. Harry's dealt with the guilt of being unable to save his friend, reminded of being unable to save Sasuke, which in turn, reminded him of the massacre. While Harry didn't trust Lockhart in any way shape or form, he was still going to let a girl up and die because he was going to run away. In the ninja world, much like the military, to run away like that would be an act of desertion, which in turn, is an act of betrayal. After Itachi, I'm pretty sure that Harry would have bad reactions to traitors. A little foreshadowing of third year, me thinks. There's also the fact he's been trained by Anko, so he's going to be a little on the more violent side, considering their similarities. That's my reasoning anyway. Hope it makes sense. _

_Definitely will come to the climax of CoS next time though. Hopefully, I can live up to everyone's expectations on that front! Wish me luck!_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **The Chamber itself becomes the battleground for the sake of Hogwarts itself. But with the ultimate advantage now the ultimate weakness, is there any way to even win? Next time on Uchiha Potter: Chamber of Secrets – Fourth Seal: Hebi_

_(Hebi = Snake)_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	19. Chapter 18: Chamber of Secrets: 4th Seal

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_Things start to go down hill. After the diary is stolen, Hermione is also attacked moments after realising the puzzle behind the monster. Dumbledore is forced to leave and Hagrid is falsely imprisoned for the opening of the Chamber. What's worse is that after Harry discovers the truth of the chamber and its monster, and after he realises Ginny is involved, she is spirited away into the chamber itself by the monster. They also discover Lockhart, who was charged to go into the chamber, was also going to run away, but Harry and Ron apprehend him. Lockhart in toe, it would appear the only chance of saving Ginny and stopping the attacks is to go into the chamber itself…_

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Chamber of Secrets – Fourth Seal: Hebi**

If someone had been around the corridors to see what was actually happening, Harry was certain they must have thought that is was an extremely weird sight to see. Ron, wand trained on Lockhart, who was looking distinctly ruffled and certainly not looking like his normal well groomed self, stumbling after Harry who was dragging the phoney teacher along by his collar. However, Harry honestly couldn't care. Though his initial rage at Lockhart trying to escape his job had started to drain away, it didn't mean that Harry had forgiven Lockhart for any of the crap the man had done throughout the year, or that he was a damned deserter even if he had been a phoney from the start. The only reason he was calming down was the fact that Lockhart was finally going to have a use, even if it was as a canary in the mine, so to speak.

Ron was displaying a remarkable amount of restraint though, for a civilian. If Lockhart had been about to abandon one of his brothers to death, then Harry would have slaughtered the man on the spot. Ron, however, just kept his wand on him, and even manage to resist the urge to kick him if the man fell down. Harry was extremely impressed by his friend's self control.

Finally, they made their way to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, past the wall that displayed the two warnings (he felt Ron shiver slightly, but his friend's face set even more determinedly moments later) and finally into the bathroom where the ghost girl was. Harry could only hope his theory that Myrtle was the student who died 50 years ago the last time that the Chamber was opened wasn't an unfounded one.

Harry threw Lockhart inside first. The man stumbled, trembling from head to toe and Harry didn't particularly care he was channelling Anko somewhat with the sadistic pleasure he had at seeing the man so ruffled.

Lockhart's stumble, however, seemed to also catch the attention of Myrtle, who floated up, almost curious in a petulant kind of way. All the times the group had come into the bathroom to brew the Polyjuice potion, and after the incident they found the diary in, they had exchanged a few words. Still, she eyed Harry a moment.

"Oh, it's you," she said after a moment, the sulky petulance fading ever so slightly. "What do you want this time?"

"To ask you how you died," said Harry.

Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question. Ghosts were really, really weird. Then again, Harry had lived around ninja who seemed to always have a screw loose somewhere, so he shook off his incredulousness at her reaction

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. Id hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then -" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."

_That was anticlimactic…_

"How?" Harry, asked, already having a feeling that his confidence in his theory hadn't been misplaced.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away . . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

_Bingo._

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.

Was is possible that the entrance to the chamber was actually in the girl's bathroom? If it was, Harry wasn't sure if he should applaud Slytherin for his genius at picking a place that one would least suspect, or actually wince at the guy for actually doing something as degrading as that. He wondered what the Slytherin students would think. After all, Slytherin might have used the chamber to peak on unsuspecting girls in this bathroom.

…Or maybe that's just what some ninja would have done. Details, details – he had more important things to do.

Letting Ron deal with keeping an eye on Lockhart, Harry approached the sink, checking everything carefully for anything out of the ordinary with his Sharingan, just in case any hints or clues were smaller than the human eye could usually make out without it. For a moment, he couldn't see anything until a tiny snake, scratched out onto the side of the copper tap, caught his eye. Had the heir, fifty years ago, scratched that out to remind himself of where the entrance was?

"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly. The ghost girl was the most cheerful that Harry had ever seen her, but at least she was being more helpful than her usual tearful self.

"Harry," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."

Harry closed his eyes, imagining every snake he had ever met – Anko's summons, his own summons, the snakes from the Forest of Death, the snake Malfoy had conjured. It wasn't too hard after having used Parseltongue so much that it had become almost second nature.

"_Open,"_ he commanded.

And the Chamber's entrance obeyed his once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move, sliding into the ground right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. A trill of adrenaline rushed through him. It was good to know that the theories he had built up had been correct, that they hadn't done any of these things in vain.

"Well, last chance to turn back," Harry shot to his friend, though he already knew what the answer would be before the words even left his lips.

"I'm going," Ron said, face a mask of determination.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile, though it was pathetically shaky and weak as he tried to sidle towards the exit. "I'll just -" he broke into a run, but Harry grabbed him by the back of his collar, causing him to half choke as Harry yanked him back and shoved him towards the chamber entrance. The man stumbled, managing to get is footing before he fell head first into it

"Don't try my patience," Harry said coldly, pointing his wand between the man's eyes, his free hand moving to his kunai pouch in case repeatedly stabbing him was needed instead of firing of a curse. "You've still got a use as a meat shield. I might have had more mercy even for a deserter like you, but you subjected me to the torture of answering your fan mail. Just think of this as retribution."

"Surely it wasn't that bad…" Ron murmured as Lockhart quaked.

"Four hours, Ron-kun," Harry pointed out, eyes narrowing at Lockhart, who wilted under his glare. "Four. _Freaking._ Hours."

"…Oh. Alright. Carry on then."

Any hope of mercy seemed to die in Lockhart's eyes. Gulping, Lockhart turned around and looked into the tunnel a moment, before he swallowed again and glanced back around, trying one last time for some way out.

"Harry, please, be reasonable-!" Lockhart started, but cut himself off with a cry when Harry planted his foot in the man's back and shoved him hard head first into the chamber and his scared girl-squeals echoed down the tube. Moment's later, Harry swung himself inside, closely followed by Ron.

It was a good job that Harry had gotten used to dirt and grime from his mission with Anko to swamp country, and when he spent days in the Forest of Death, otherwise this would have been one of the most gross things that he had ever done, sliding down a slime-covered pipe into the bowels of…somewhere by the pluming of all things, twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Many smaller pipes branched off, Harry noticed from whatever minimal light he could see even with his Sharingan on. Perhaps this pipe was the main line into the sewers?

…He really didn't want to consider that, now that he thought about it.

Behind him he could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves. And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe levelled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on a damp, cold, stone floor, but managed to keep his footing with his training. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.

Carefully, Harry looked around at the place they had ended up. There was very little light there. The fact he could even see vague shapes in the darkness was a miracle, though whether it was because he still had his Sharingan activated, or whether it was because there was some light coming from somewhere, Harry wasn't sure, though he strongly suspected the former.

Closing his eyes so as not to hurt them, he lifted up his wand. "Lumos."

Immediately, the white glow of the wand's tip bathed them in its white light and Harry could actually look around at exactly where they had ended up now.

The place really did make him think of some kind of sewer. The place they had ended up was at least tall enough for a full grown man to walk through, the tunnel that seemed to lead from it was so dark that Harry could only see a little distance ahead even with the wand's light. He could hear the soft dripping of water from somewhere, echoing off the stone walls.

"We must be miles under the school…" Ron said as he, too, lit his wand, squinting at the dark, slimy walls. "Maybe even under the lake."

"We need to get moving," Harry said. "The more time we hover around here, the less time we have getting Ginny out. Lockhart, get here and do your job already," Harry added scathingly, jabbing Lockhart's back with his wand and forcing him to match ahead of them. If nothing else, if Lockhart keeled over dead then at least they'd have forewarning about the Basilisk. "If you see movement, Ron-kun, whatever you do, don't look up. Keep your eyes pointed downwards or get them closed."

That being said, their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wand light and Harry had to prevent himself from jumping every time their feet crunched on rodent bones when they walked – the Basilisk probably left these things around, the last remnants of what the creature had probably been living off for its many, many years locked away in the Chamber.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever with no obvious end in sight, the only sound being Lockhart's fear-laden laboured breathing, the faint drip dripping of the water and the echoed footsteps as they continued onwards, broken only by the occasional sickening crunch as yet another rat skull was crushed under their feet, making Lockhart whimper each time. At first it had been funny, but now Harry just wanted to slap the man every time. After all, he was straining his ears for any sound of the Basilisk movement or voice, and Lockhart's terrified moans and whimpers were becoming an annoying distraction that could end up getting them Petrified or worse.

It likely would have gone on like that until Harry actually stuck the coward – until his wand-light fell of the distinct shape of serpent coils.

"Shut your eyes!" Harry ordered, "Shut them now!"

To their credit, both of them followed Harry's orders at once, but the beast itself didn't move. That was strange. Unless the creature was sleeping off a meal (he could only hope that meal hadn't been Ginny), he was sure that it should have caused some form of movement. Eyes focused downwards, lest the creature actually try to kill him with his gaze, Harry lifted the light, hoping that he wasn't going to end up doing something stupid. However, rather than waking the snake or killing himself by looking into its eyes, Harry found the light falling on a discarded snake skin, vivid, poisonous green, curled up and abandoned across the floor. Harry whistled softly at it. The snake was bigger than any of the summons Harry had seen. He had to wonder if the boss Snake Summon, Manda, was that length.

"Its ok, you can open your eyes," Harry told the others, lifting the wand higher in curiosity. "It's just a snake skin."

Behind him, he heard sighs of relief, only for them to be sucked back in moments later as they actually saw the skin itself.

"Blimey…" Ron managed weakly as Harry approached to investigate. "_Just_ a snake skin? It must be-!"

"About Fifty foot long," Harry estimated as he ran his fingers over the skin curiously. It seemed like the skin was quite protected, his scales rather armoured. He had to wonder what armour made out of this stuff would be like. Whilst they were too busy staring at the snake's form, Harry quickly managed to hack off (with difficulty) a little bit of the skin from the tail. If all went well, he'd have to see what the Hokage thought about the sample to see if it was useful for something like armour maybe? "It's only been shed recently – it's still got its colour," Harry continued, remembering the serpent lore that Anko had drilled into him (as well as what he learned from communicating with the snakes. "That means the basilisk's current scales probably aren't as armoured, but on the flip side, that thing's going to be in a seriously bad mood."

A whimper and the sound of a body hitting the floor and Harry looked over to find that Lockhart had just collapsed to the floor as his knees gave way. Harry shook his head. Even as a meat shield the man was completely useless.

"Get up," Ron said sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

After a moment, Lockhart got to his feet again – and Harry caught a flicker of triumph on the man's lips.

"Wait, Ron-kun, get back," Harry started, but it was too late – Lockhart had pounced onto Ron. Harry moved to stop him, only for Lockhart to straighten up, Ron's wand pointed at his head. Freezing, Harry moved backwards a little.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said, almost vindictively as he kept Ron's wand trained on Harry, who looked back with a flat, defiant expression, though his free hand was carefully reaching into his hip pouch while the man monologued. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body – say goodbye to your memories!"

Lockhart raised the wand and started the spell, but Harry was ready. Before the man could even finish the words 'Obliviate', Harry launched a shuriken at the wand. The half charged spell and the shuriken now lodged into it seemed to short circuit the wand even after Lockhart's arm had been thrown back and there was an explosion that shook the very foundations of the tunnels, cracks shooting up the walls. With a yell, Harry managed to roll away before rocks fell down on them, Ron darting in the other direction before dust and rubble fell down between then, sight no longer available.

Coughing, Harry got to his feet. "Ron?" he managed to call out, moving to the rubble wall, fear gripping him. "Ron, if you can hear me, answer me!" He didn't give two hoots about Lockhart, but if his friend had been caught in that cave in, he would never be able to forgive himself!

"I'm here!" Ron's voice came back, slightly muffled by the rocks that stood in there way, but it was healthy and strong and Harry almost sunk to the floor in relief. "I'm okay – this git's not though – he got blasted by the wand-"

There was a dull thud and an 'ow!' that sounded as though Ron kicked him. Harry hoped it really hurt that bastard.

"What now?" Ron's voice asked desperately. "We can't get through – it'll take ages…"

Harry looked over the wall that now blocked them for a moment. Maybe he was lucky in a way. This way, at least Ron wouldn't get hurt. He would at least be protected. Harry wouldn't have been able to go all out if Ron was there. It was better this way. Still, if he just left the guy then he'd drive himself crazy with worry.

"Don't worry about it, just leave it to me," Harry said. After all, Ron didn't have a wand any more, neither did Lockhart. He made a mental note to buy him a new one when this was all over. "You stay with that _Ahou_ over there and try to make an opening for us for when we come back. I'll definitely bring your sister back to you. I swear."

"Harry…" Ron murmured back, sounding almost choked up, but seemed to pull himself back together. "R-right. Thanks, Harry…Harry-"

"See you in a bit," Harry called back to him, putting confidence in his voice, even if he wasn't quite as confident as he sounded. But he was a ninja, he was prepared for anything that might happen, Ron, however, wasn't. Best not to give him anything to panic over in the darkness.

Turning on his heel, wand in hand, kunai in another, Harry continued on alone, high alert for anything that might come at him. After all, he didn't have Lockhart to be his advanced warning system any more. It seemed to take longer that Harry thought, ears straining to pick up any kind of noise until he reached a bend. Pressing his back against the wall, he peered around the corner, only to find, not more corridors, but a rather ornate looking door, two carved snakes entwined with each other in a way that reminded Harry of a twisted kind of oroboros, their eyes set with emeralds that glinted in the wand-light, as if alive.

There was no doubt about it. This was it. The Chamber of Secrets. Harry could only hope that Ginny was inside and alive.

Taking a deep breath, back straight and weapons in both hands, Harry hissed his command once more.

"_Open!"_

The entwined serpents parted as the chamber door cracked in two, the two halves sliding smoothly out of sight. Tense and prepared, Harry stepped inside, part of him wishing that everything hadn't happened all at once because back up would have been nice. Still, even if he had sent a message, there was no way back up would have appeared on time, not if he wanted to save a life here.

The chamber itself was bigger than Harry had thought it would be, but it was also dimly lit by an odd green glow that filled the place, though Harry couldn't for the life of him pick out where the glow came from. Towering stone pillars supported the ceiling, carved into serpents and Harry was unsure that he could fully see the ceiling at all, shadows cast onto the damp ground. Harry let the light of his wand go out with a quick murmur of 'Nox'. Though the green glow was dull, he didn't want to be the obvious wandering target and even though it tinted everything emerald, Harry could still make out everything clearly as he cautiously made his way inside, running up the side of one of the pillars a moment and using his hand to steady himself, chakra to hold him there as he looked for any sign of the monster, or, more importantly, any sign of Ron's little sister.

The chamber was quite long, but he could just make out the end of it – a flash of red against the green catching his eye as he drew in a breath. There was only one family he knew of with that shade of hair.

Carefully, he leapt down and made his way towards the chambers end, keeping his eyes and ears pealed for any sign of movement as he did so. Finally, he reached the base of a statue, the only humanoid one in the room of a man towering above, an ancient, monkeyish face, long thin beard that almost reached the bottom of stone robes. Salazar Slytherin, he guessed distractedly, as he was a little more concerned by the collapsed girl that lay deathly still at the bottom of the statue's feet.

"Dammit…" Harry murmured, darting forward, tucking his wand into his hip pouch as he dropped to his knees beside the girl, rolling her over. She did so limply, her skin deathly cold and Harry felt a chill settle into his own stomach. She wasn't dead, was she? What would he tell Ron after he promised to bring her back? Cursing, Harry quickly up his fingers to her throat, searching for some kind of pulse as he lowered his head, ear to her mouth, looking down her chest for some form of movement, anything. It was barely there, hardly there at all, but he heard the weak breath and felt the weak (so weak) pulse.

"Come on, Ginny, wake up," Harry ordered, shaking her. "Your brother's waiting for you. Don't you dare die on me, got it?"

Harry knew medical jutsu, but it was more for lacerations or broken bones. Even as he started to form hand seals, he wasn't overly sure what he should even be targeting. She didn't appear injured at all – was it something internal? Or was it something to do wuith chakra. He was just about to start trying to use the Mystic hands, about to check her chakra flow with his Sharingan when a voice came from behind him, freezing him in place.

"She won't wake."

Breath hitching – how had someone managed to sneak up on him like that? It was like whoever it was actually hadn't been there before, or had been hiding their chakra – Harry slowly looked around. There, he came face to face with a young man that held a startling resemblance to himself, though the black hair was smoother, eyes more brown than Harry's dark green, and was at least a few years older than Harry himself, dressed in Hogwart's robes instead of Harry's 'casual' (read, much more practical) wear, the Slytherin crest on his chest. But what was stranger was that the edges of the young man were blurred, sometimes faded, sometimes more formed. However, what caught Harry's interest the most was the chakra. A very familiar chakra. A Chakra he had sensed/seen, not from a person, but an object.

"You're….Tom Riddle," Harry said, slowly rising to his feet, though he made sure that Ginny's body lay behind him, away from the figure? Apparition? Ignoring what the 'boy' said, Harry narrowed his eyes. "…what are you?"

"A memory," Riddle said softly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"That so," Harry said coldly. "Alright then, care to tell me how a memory is standing before me right now when last I knew, you were part of a diary?"

Riddle just smiled. "It's all thanks to your little friend there," he said simply.

"You put her in this state then," Harry frowned.

"It's Ginny's own fault that she came to be in such a state," Riddle explained. "After all, she was the one who opened her heart and mind, spilling her secrets and desires to an invisible stranger."

"I see," Harry frowned. "She wrote to you in that diary. And somehow it linked the two of you?"

"Indeed, I thought you were rather smart when we spoke before," Riddle said, almost seeming pleased, or perhaps it was that odd glint in his eyes as he looked at Harry that made him seem oddly pleased. "That's right. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes. How her brother's tease her, how she had to come to school with second hand books and robes, how she didn't think the famous Harry Potter would ever like her." Riddles eyes glinted further at that and Harry knew without a doubt that Riddle had already worked out exactly who Harry was, at least, what everyone thought he was. There was almost a hungry look in them.

"I'm surprised you weren't bored stupid," Harry said snidely. Ron had been the one to warn him about the book. Ginny was part of Ron's family, why didn't she pay attention too. If she had, he wouldn't have to deal with this now. "Let me guess then, after all the energy you got from all her replies, you've been able to use her like a puppet to open the chamber and send your little pet basilisk out. Then when Ginny finally realised what was going on, she tried to get rid of you, when I found you. Nice try trying to win me over, but I'm not an idiot. A Spider as Slytherin's monster? You have to be kidding me. Its amazing you managed to fool everyone fifty years ago that you were some kind of hero with that kind of story, Slytherin's Heir-san."

Harry felt a kind of vindictive pleasure rise up in him at the obviously startled look that flickered onto Tom's face, though it faded as Tom suddenly started to laugh, high, cold and cruel. Temper starting to get the better of him, Harry's hand clenched on the wand in his hip pouch. "What's so damned funny?"

"That's it! That's what was so interesting about you when we conversed before. We're very alike, you and I. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike. I wanted to hear from you again, see what made that brain of yours tick," Riddle said, as he began to circle Harry as if he were some sort of pray, eyes glinting. Maybe it was the chamber's glow sending up odd lights, but was that a hint of red in Riddles eyes? Harry made sure not to let his eyes off him, following him around even as Riddle circled him. "Imagine how angry I was when the next time the diary was written in again it was that girl rather than you. She heard you talking about the diary, you see and realising what diary panicked. What if you found out how the diary worked and I gave up all her secrets to you? Or worse, what if I told you just who the one attacking all those people were? So the brat waited for the dormitory to be deserted and stole it back. Interesting little traps you laid out. Yes, I knew what I had to do. It was clear to me you weren't fooled, like I never was able to fool Dumbledore fifty years ago either, the only one of the staff I wasn't able to fool."

"How depressing," Harry said cooly. Honestly, only Dumbledore was able to pick out that the clues didn't add up? Harry's faith in humanities intelligence, or at least that of wizards couldn't be much lower than it was right then. However, Riddle ignored him, whether by choice or because he was too into his story to hear him, Harry didn't know.

"I forced Ginny to tell me who you were, that you were the great Harry Potter she always so gushed about. I knew that I needed to move fast if I were to meet you again, alone. After all, I didn't want you to run off to get help once you discovered the truth, so I gave you a little more incentive to look into it personally, knowing you would definitely come to me if one of your closest friends was attacked."

"You attacked Hermione on purpose, then," Harry said coldly, eyes narrowed, realising how he'd been played, "To get me to have a personal reason to come after you."

"Of course. And to make it so you would definitely seek out the chamber, I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there wasn't much life left in her, she'd put too much into the diary, into me. Enough for me to leave the pages at last. I've been waiting for you to come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"All that for a chit chat? I'm _honoured_," Harry drawled, not even bothering to correct him about his surname, though inwardly he was cursing that he had pretty much walked into a trap. But there wasn't much he could do right now other than play along and hope that Ginny was strong enough to hold on a little longer. "Make it quick. I have better things to do than play games with you."

Riddle twitched at that, as if Harry having his attention on something else other than him right then was some kind of personal insult, stopping walking around him, but looked at him intensely.

"Very well," Riddle said, that not-quite-right smile on his face. "How is it that a boy, clever as you may be, with nothing but weird quirks to really mark you as different, manage to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"What's Voldemort got to do with anyth-" Harry cut himself off as it started to dawn on him with enough force that Harry had to blink, trying to connect this young man to the shade he had seen the year before. But now he thought about it, it was almost obvious where he had recognised that chakra before, why it seemed so familiar

"Ah, it seems that you've worked it out," Riddle said with a kind of relish. "That's right. Voldemort and I…" Riddle said as he spelled out the words TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in the air with a wand – Ginny's, he could only guess as he doubted the memory came out with his own "Are indeed…" he waved the wand and the words rearranged themselves, forming instead I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. Riddle turned around to face him again, the red glint in his eyes far more obvious now. "One and the same."

"You made your Dark Lord name out of an anagram…?" Harry said as his mind worked a mile a minute. Tom Riddle, this…memory, was Voldemort from fifty years ago? Even now he had really connected the two, it was hard to connect that parasitic spirit with the rather handsome young man in front of him, yet at the same time, he was amazing that he hadn't guessed before now.

"Did you think I would keep using my filthy Muggle father's name forever?" Riddle sneered. "I, whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself on my mother's side? I, keep the name of the foul, common Muggle who dared abandon me before I was born, because he found out his wife was a witch?" he chuckled. "No Harry – I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"So you named yourself something that rhymes with Moldy Wart?" Harry said dryly, relishing the thought of throwing his frustration in Voldemort's face, even if this Voldemort wasn't quite Voldemort just yet. "Or Volde Mart, attacking people with your low, low prices?"

Whatever response Riddle was expecting, it certainly wasn't that and for a moment it seemed to throw him off stride before anger twisted his face. "Don't you dare mock my name!" Riddle snarled.

"Enough stalling!" Harry snapped right back. "Waiting to drain Ginny completely? You want to know my answer?" he added with a smirk. "You'll just have to get it over my dead body."

"Oh, I plan too," Riddle purred out before he whipped around to the statue. "_Speak to me, Slytrherin, greatest of Hogwarts four!"_ he commanded in Parseltongue and Harry felt the blood drain from his face as he realised exactly what was going to happen as the statue of Slytrherin began to move, its mouth opening and a serpentine shadow moving from within.

"_Kill him."_

…_Shit!_

Harry decided in that moment he really, really needed to learn to curb his tongue and stop picking up Anko's bad habits as he backed away before turning and running.

This was bad. Really, really bad. The last time Harry had been up against Voldemort (or should that be Quirrelmort?), Harry had had his Sharingan to help him to defeat the man. Now? Now if Harry caught the eye of the giant snake that was now uncoiling from the bottom of the Statue where it had landed, its massive body now moving with surprising agility after Harry through the tunnels, it would be over in an instant. He grabbed his hitae ate and yanked it over his eyes, his only protection against the serpent's gaze, but what about the rest of it? Poisonous fangs, massive coils – hell it could just swallow him and it would be over in an instant. And with his eyes covered, he couldn't see where he was going and crashed into things several times, only just managing to avoid the snake in those moments by pure dumb luck, Riddle's high pitched laughter ringing in his ears. He was going to have to learn to fight blind.

If he survived, that was.

_No, stay calm, stay calm!_ Harry forced himself to think as he stumbled onwards blind, only the echoing sounds of the monster snake chasing after him giving him any kind of clue of where he was going. _The moment you panic, you're dead. Think. Riddle's the one controlling that thing. He's also the one draining Ginny. Riddle came from the diary. You get rid of Riddle, you save Ginny and you have a chance that that snake might be willing to listen to you instead and stop attacking. The only way I can think is attacking the source of all this – the Diary!_

_I need to lose the Basilisk somehow!_

Riddle had been directing the snake to attack Harry. The only thing he could think was to make it that neither Riddle nor the Basilisk knew which Harry to attack.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

Four more Harrys all appeared in a poof of smoke, darting in other directions as they came to a several pronged fork in the tunnels. He could hear the Basilisk pausing, wavering, confused while he heard Riddle's somewhat surprised cry of, "What kind of magic is that? No matter, we can play hide and seek. The Basilisk will just kill all of them until it gets to the real one!"

That was sort of the idea, Harry wanted to throw back, but he knew that doing so would only show who the real Harry was, so he clamped his mouth shut and kept running, hearing the Basilisk his as it picked one of his clones to target first, slithering down a different fork than the one he took.

That had the monster out of the way for a little while. Now to get to the diary.

Slowing down, Harry pulled up his hiate ate slightly, hoping he hadn't miscalculated and ended up meeting the Basilisk's eyes, waiting for any sign of the Basilisk to vanish before he doubled back and darted back towards the main chamber. He didn't have much time. Already, he felt one of his clones had been dispelled, razor sharp fangs having closed upon it before its form broke. From the clone's memory, he really, really didn't want those teeth anywhere near him. He sped up.

Harry crept back into the chamber, darting from pillar to pillar. Poof, there went another clone, its form had put up a good fight, but even with weaker scales than normal due to its recent shedding, it hadn't been able to do much damage before the serpent got to it, unable to withstand its powerful coils. Clinging onto the pillar near where Ginny was, Harry spied it, the diary, lying almost innocent looking. Poof, there went the third clone, 'killed' as it met those poisonous yellow laser-like eyes. There was only one clone left, one last distraction before the Basilisk would target him once more. He had to hurry.

Pulling out several Shuriken, he charged them with chakra before launching them at Riddle, who had been watching as occasionally a Harry was seen, running and dodging from the Basilisk, cutting him off with a startled cry as some hit his almost solid form thanks to the chakra, some passing through when it was less solid, one knocking Ginny's wand from his hand, sending it clattering to the ground, just as the last clone was reduced to a puff of smoke once more.

Riddle distracted, Harry pointed at the diary with his wand. "Accio diary!"

"What? No!" Riddle yelled as he made to grab for the diary, but having stumbled back from his shuriken, his fingers barely grazed it as it whizzed by, just as the Basilisk burst out, launching itself at the pillar that Harry had been on. Quickly, Harry pushed himself off, flipping over and snatching the diary out of the air, landing on his feet as he skidded back, diary tucked securely under his arm.

"_KILL HIM! KILL THE BOY NOW!"_ Riddle screamed, almost panicked by this point, the snake already shaking its head off, hissing dangerously in pain, its venomous teeth glinting in the livid green light, but still dazed from smashing head long into pure stone. He had no time, especially if the Basilisk recovered before he was ready. Shoving the diary in his mouth, Harry quickly formed hand seals.

_Katon: Gokakyou no jutsu!_

And Harry's chakra based flames burst from his mouth, engulfing the leather-bound pages.

Whatever Harry was expecting, it most certainly wasn't what happened next.

A scream pieced the chamber, echoing as if a thousand people were all screaming at once. Riddle was writhing, screaming and flailing as, like the diary, Riddle burst into flames. Fruitlessly, Riddle tried to bat at his robes, somehow to put out the fire that was consuming him as he twisted and turned before his screams turned piercing in a death cry as Riddle practically exploded, vanishing in flames, sparks and smoke as the remains of the charred diary dropped from Harry's mouth, cover blackened and charred, old printed words withered, paper practically ash slowly crumbling as the last tiny flames flickered at the corners.

Harry coughed smoke. That was the last time that he was ever going to set fire to coming at point blank range again – it was going to be bad for his health. Well, he had to remind himself, at least this time he didn't end up collapsing from Chakra exhaustion.

"_Master…Where is Master…?"_

Harry practically inhaled the smoke he had been trying to couch from his lungs, quickly, he yanked his hitae ate down once more, heart pounding in his chest. Riddle was gone, the directing force behind the monstrous serpent, but with him gone, would Harry even be able to control it? Sure he had Parseltongue, but as far as he was aware he had no ties to Slytherin.

Still, it was worth a shot. What other plans did he really have with his Sharingan, no, not just his Sharingan, but his _sight_ hampered as it was by the snake's killing gaze.

"_H-he's gone,"_ Harry hissed to it, trying to keep his voice steady.

"…_Gone…?"_

"_Tom Riddle is dead."_

"_Who is…Tom Riddle…?"_

Harry guessed he shouldn't be surprised. Neither Riddle nor Voldemort seemed like the kind to offer their names to something they were using as a kind of weapon or whatever. _"The guy who had been ordering you around."_

"_He is dead?"_ Harry couldn't help but think that for all its hissing about killing that Harry had seen before this, the basilisk seemed almost child like. Mind you, Harry had heard of people who could be child like in personality and would follow around the real brains, killing people because they thought (or had been taught) it was right.

"_Yes."_

"_Then…you are…New Master?"_

Harry blinked. He didn't think it would be so easy, to be honest, but he quickly pulled himself together. _"Yes."_ He said firmly.

"_You speak the tongue…" _the Basilisk said, though Harry wasn't sure if it was talking to itself by this point or to him. _"Command me."_

"_I want you to stop attacking the Muggleborns,"_ Harry said. He was terrified as hell, but he wouldn't show that weakness now. If he did, the serpent could easily turn on him. He flexed his fingers, ready to form the Shosen jutsu if things didn't go according to plan

"_Then you will go…And close the Chamber? And leave me to sleep…for many years, once more…?"_

How was it possible that the creature who had, not ten minutes ago had sent him running for his life was now the very same creature Harry suddenly felt sorry for. It sounded so sorrowful that Harry actually felt _guilty_ for upsetting it!

"_Well, I guess I could come and visit sometime…?" _Harry suggested. As long as he could stop it from killing or attacking people then that was a small price to pay right? Besides, if he could get it on his side, well, having an instant death attacker on his side had to be good for something in the ninja world._ "I'd make a summon contract with you, but I don't know how to make a new one…" _Another thing to ask Anko. But would a summon contract with a basilisk be different from a snake contract? Could he even use two contracts like that?

"_Summon contract…?" _The Basilisk seemed to think it over for a moment, before he heard the snake move closer and Harry stiffened slightly. _"I think I remember…from long, long ago…"_

Before Harry could move, or even brace himself, he felt something shoot out and touch his arm. All of a sudden, there was pain and Harry yelled, pulling back, hand clasping over his arm as he pulled it close to himself gasping.

"_Call for me…and I will come…New Master. Until then…I shall sleep…and dream once again."_

There was a flurry of movement and he could hear the snake move away, and the sound of stone grinding against stone. Yanking his hitae ate up again, Harry pulled his arm up, yanking back the sleeve and stared at what damage the serpent might have done. If the snake had poisoned him, he would die a rather quick and painful death. He couldn't die here! But rather than seeing a mark where fangs had pierced, or even pricked the skin, Harry instead found an odd shaped marking, even visible under the bruise that had already started to form there. On his arm, just above his wrist there seemed to be a circular shape which seemed to be held in the 'mouth' of an shape that almost looked like a snake, who's 'coils' were curled around it, giving it a spiral like shape. There seemed to be a curved line starting just below the spiral and moved outwards in one direction, while another one was at the top of the spiral and moved out into a flick in the opposite direction, making it almost look like a stylised eye shape. In fact, it looked like a crude version of a summon tat-

…_Wait_…

Harry could only stare at it for a moment before things really clicked and he gaped. Had he just forcibly been given a summoning tattoo from a _basilisk?_

_I really need a holiday…_

His weak thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a low groan that came from the doll like figure across by the feet of Slytherin's statue and Harry realised with a jolt that Ginny was finally awake. Yanking his sleeve down to cover up the marking, Harry hurried over, relieved. At least he would be able to keep his promise to Ron.

Still, Harry never thought that comforting a fan girl would be something he would ever do. But it had taken him a good ten minutes of awkwardly patting the sobbing girl's back as she clung to him, whimpering about how disappointed her parents would be and how she was going to get expelled before she at least stopped crying enough that Harry could get them up, gather his fallen weapons, Ginny's wand and the remains of the diary and lead them out of the chamber once more, hearing the doors sliding closed with a hiss behind them. He doubted this would be the last time he would be here though. If he could find something to do with the decor, the place might actually make good training grounds if nothing else. Plus he had promised to come see the basilisk sometime – he wanted some explanation as to how the basilisk even knew about summon techniques. But, those were thoughts for another time as they finally made their way back to where the cave in had been.

"Ron-kun," Harry called. "I have good news and better news. The good news is, I'm back. The better news is I kept my promise. I've got her."

He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall. It was dirty and pale, but at the same time his eyes shone with utter relief to see his little sister still alive.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"

"It's a long story. A really long story," Harry said, rubbing his sleeve covered arm slightly as he waited until Ginny was in her brother's arms before he started to squeeze through himself. "I'll tell you later." _Once I can come up with a suitable story…_"Anyway, where's the _ahou_?"

"Back there," said Ron, jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

Ron led them back through the tunnels all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.

"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."

Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.

"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry, who snorted. It seems that even though he had sot his own memories out, he was still an idiot. But at least he sounded more tolerable now. But what the hell hey were going to tell the teachers, he'd never know. Mind you, if they told them the truth they'd probably get an award for getting rid of the waste of space that Lockhart had been at Hogwarts.

"Oh yeah, I owe you a wand too," Harry said as he tapped his cheek, turning his attention from Lockhart to the way they had come in, crouching down to look up the long, dark pipe.

"What? No…but…" Ron started. Harry, already guessing he was going to think it was some sort of charity or something cut him off.

"Its my fault your wand blew up," Harry said. "Your parents'll kill me for that, and I don't think my brothers'll appreciate that much. Suck it up and let me get your new wand so I don't have to dig my way out of whatever grave they'll burry me in."

Ron snorted at that, but at least he wasn't protesting any more.

"So….how are we going to get out?" Harry said casually. He could get up fine with his chakra 'wall walking', but was there a way out without revealing that to the two wizards and the brainless idiot

"Don't you think you should have thought about this before!" Ron yelled. Harry ignored him

"Come on, we were in a hurry," Harry pointed out. "Anyway, I sort of got an idea. Kinda. Sort of. Maybe." He stopped before Ron could glare holes into his head. He had enough of killer eyes for one day. "I'll…just go see about it…" Harry said, looking back at the tunnel. Everything in here so far seemed to be worked by Parseltongue, and he was sure that Slytherin himself didn't have chakra to walk back up the slick surface, so maybe…

"_Stairs,"_ Harry ordered. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen other than Ginny shivering even more at the hissed language, but moments later, the slick pipeline changed, stairs beginning to form.

"Well that's convenient…" Ron said weakly, gaping at the stairs that had taken form.

"It is, isn't it," Harry nodded, feeling rather proud of himself. All things considered, Harry couldn't help but think as they made their way up the slippery staircase (at least Lockhart remembered how to walk) that it had been a rather productive day.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It took them much longer getting out of the tunnels than it had taken getting down to them, but by the time they reached the top, even Harry was breathing heavily, though that was still much better than the others, who practically collapsed on the tiled floor once they reached the top (the stairs finally vanished once they stepped out and the skin put itself back into place, the chamber sealed off from civilians once more.

Myrtle gaped at them. "You're not dead."

"Disappointed?" Harry asked dryly, trying to dust off the remains of dirt, slime and ashes from his clothes in vain.

"Oh, well ... I'd just been thinking ... if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver. Harry blanched. A _Ghost_ fan girl?

_This is **beyond** disturbing._

"Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny – ow!" Ron winced when Harry elbowed him, shooting him a glare.

_Don't encourage her!_

However, it seemed that Ginny was far more concerned about her current position after having been the unwilling accomplice to the Heir of Slytherin to really react to it, tears still trickling down her face. Well, at least his fan girl had some sense in all of this.

…that had to be a first, where fan girls were concerned.

Still, he knew Ron was likely trying to lighten the mood. His friend's face fell seeing that it had in now way cheered Ginny up. "What now?" he asked with an anxious look at Ginny, not that Harry could blame him. He honestly wasn't sure what to do with the tearful girl himself.

"Since McGonagall-sensei is the acting Headmistress now that Dumbledore-sensei, then I think its best if we find her and let her know that Ginny's back safe, especially since your parents must have been told by now that your sister was missing," Harry suggested. "And let them know that we've sorted out everything in the chamber," he added, glancing down at the charred book remains in his hand, hoping that perhaps McGonagall would be more willing to listen to them this year than she was when they told her about the Philosopher's stone the year before. "Come on."

Ron nodded, arm around his sister's shoulder as they made they way to McGonagal's office. From inside, Harry could hear noises. That was good, at least they wouldn't have to wait – it would only distress Ginny more and Harry really didn't know what to do with a distressed girl. After all, most of the females in his life (not including fan girls) had been rather strong. His Aunt Mikoto, while gentle and kind, was strict and stern when she needed to be. Besides, he doubted that his Uncle Fugaku would have married a weak woman. His friend, Tenten, was strong willed and tomboyish – probably the reason both he and Neji didn't mind hanging around her – and was more likely to fling Kunai than cry if upset. Then there was Anko.

'Nuff said there.

Honestly, Harry usually didn't give a fan girl a chance to confess to him because he didn't want to deal with them balling when he said no, but if he did reject them, even if he did it gently, and they did start crying, he usually could just excuse himself to get away from the awkwardness. But this fan girl was one of his best friend's sister and as such, really couldn't just duck out when he got uncomfortable in this case, especially when he needed to act as witness to Ginny's innocence.

Shaking off his thoughts, Harry knocked on the door and pushed it open, only for there to be a sudden cry that the Uchiha certainly hadn't been expecting.

**"**Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter – Ron had to scramble out of the way before he got caught in the stampede. Professor McGonagall, standing near the mantelpiece, was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest as she stared at them. Harry couldn't help but wonder what they must look like. A girl that had been thought killed, Ron covered in slime and dust from the rubble, Harry with slime, dirt and ash on his. It must have looked really strange. No wonder the poor woman looked so much like a fish out of water.

But what really caught Harry's eye was the fact that Dumbledore was there, just beside McGonagall, a crimson, swan like bird sitting on the mantelpiece near his shoulder – could that be a phoenix? He read about them during the time he and Hermione had been looking up magical creatures that the Heir was using – and wearing a smile on his face, eyes twinkling.

However, Harry didn't get to do or say anything else as, just at that moment, he and Ron were swept up into an ecstatic mother's embrace. Harry tried not to tense in her arms, but really, it was difficult. While Harry was affectionate (with his brother's at least) he honestly wasn't used to being hugged by adults, considering he and his brothers practically raised themselves the past four years.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.

"Well…it's a long story…" Harry said, dropping the diary remains on the desk and began to explain at least most of the story. He decided not to mention about the little conversation he had had with the basilisk, or the little parting gift that the creature had left him with. Either way, he did make sure that they understood that the basilisk wouldn't be harming anyone from now on. From the looks on the adults' faces (apart from Dumbledore, who's eye sparkles seemed to prevent one from reading his expression properly) they seemed under the impression he had killed it. Harry decided not to break that misconception. He didn't want to be here all day. It was going to be long enough explaining about Ginny's predicament.

"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

…well that certainly helped.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It had taken at least half an hour before the meeting finally broke up. The Weasley's all headed to the hospital wing – Ginny, escorted by her parents so she could be checked on that there was no lasting damage from everything that happened to her, Ron had been sent off with Lockhart to the hospital wing too – after all, the man was more a danger to himself than anything else, while McGonagall was sent off soon afterwards to head to the kitchens to have a feast prepared in celebration. There had been some good news in all of this, though. The restorative potion would be finished within a week and the petrified victims would all be brought back too. Harry couldn't help but feel a weight in his heart, that he hadn't noticed since Hermione had been petrified, finally lift.

With everyone gone, Harry crossed his arms and looked over to where Dumbledore was now settling at McGonagall's desk, already knowing that this was going to turn into some meeting to explain the things Harry really hadn't been able to explain properly with everyone else there. After all, him being a ninja wasn't exactly common knowledge outside of the hidden continent.

"Hey, Kocho-san," Harry said, slightly amused. "You didn't stay away long."

"Well, it would seem that the other eleven Governors saw fit to have me back in place after they heard Arthur Weasley's daughter had been kidnapped. It seemed that they had a very quick change of heart."

"They sound like idiots." Harry shook his head.

Dumbledore's lips twitched upwards, but he didn't say anything other than to offer a seat to Harry, which he took, sighing with relief as he did so. He hadn't realised just how tense he had been throughout all of this.

"You've done Hogwarts a great service," Dumbledore said. "Without your help, things might have got a lot worse."

"Actually, I have a bone to pick with you," Harry said, leaning forwards and entwining his fingers, resting his chin on them as he looked at the old man in front of him. "You knew this was happening, but not once did I actually hear of some form of investigation going on. I know I'm a ninja and that I'm here under pretence of an information gathering mission, but just because you have a ninja here you can't always expect that I'm just going to pick up a new mission undirected like that. I know you're friends with the Hokage, but you need to go through the system just like anyone else." He frowned.

"I assure you, that wasn't the intention," Dumbledore said soothingly. "But you must forgive that our investigation skills are not as…sharp, as a ninja's is. But I'm sorry if it came across as that we were purposely leaving it up to you. You will be compensated for the….mission rank change."

"Too right, Hokage-ojii'd chew you out for it." Harry teased, but leaned back in the chair, pacified for now.

Dumbledore eyes twinkled in amusement at that. "Well, I see that you met Tom Riddle. I imagine he was most interested in you…"

Harry snorted. "Too interested if you ask me. Crazy fruit loop." He remembered the conversation he had with Dumbledore last year after the Philosopher's stone fiasco. "By the way, I asked him about his 'Dark Lord' name. He didn't seem too impressed with me."

"No, I imagined he wouldn't," Dumbledore chuckled.

"The weirdo seemed to think we were alike too," Harry added with a shrug.

"And what do you think?"

Harry leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling for a long moment, eyes half lidded. "A little, I guess. I suppose we look a little like each other. We're both a bit ruthless. But I was trained as a ninja and, well, he's always been wacko as far as I could see. We can both speak Parseltongue…" He glanced back at Dumbledore. "How is it that I can speak Parseltongue anyway?" he asked. "Not that it isn't damned useful, but I doubt I'm related to Salazar Slytherin."

"You can speak Parseltongue, because Lord Voldemort – who is the last remaining descendent of Salazar Slytherin – can speak Parseltongue."

"…Come again?"

"Unless I'm very much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar of yours," Dumbledore explained. "Not something he intended to do, I'm sure."

"Huh…" Harry thought it over for a moment. "Cool." Honestly, Voldemort gave him an ability that pretty much gave him the ability to communicate with snakes. Without that ability, he wouldn't have intrigued his Sensei, he wouldn't have worked out about where the chamber was and he wouldn't now be holding a contract with a basilisk. All in all, if Voldemort had pretty much handed Harry a weapon he could use against him like a complete imbecile, then in all honesty, Harry wasn't going to complain. "Bet he feels an idiot, huh?"

"I imagine so," Dumbledore nodded. "However, I feel that, similarities aside, it is our choices that define who we are."

"Been bantering philosophy with Hokage-ojii?" Harry asked, amused.

"Something like that," Dumbledore chuckled. "Now, I believe what you need is food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast while I write to Azkaban – we need our gamekeeper back, as well as write to Sarutobi-kun about your payment. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too. We'll be needing a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher….Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

"I suggest someone competent next time," Harry pointed out flatly, but taking it as a clear sign their little meeting was over for now, made his way to the door – only to find it burst open so violently it bounced off the wall and in strode Lucius Malfoy, followed by his cowering house-elf, who Harry recognised as Dobby, heavily bandaged. Harry had to wonder if Dobby had been found out about his contact with Harry and had been punished for it.

_My, someone's in a really pissy mood…_Harry couldn't help but think as he Lucius made his way to the desk, hair oddly dishevelled and it seemed that the reason Dobby was there was because he had apparently been polishing Lucius' shoes, but hadn't quite finished when Lucius had stormed his way to the castle. He watched, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as Lucius half demanded why Dumbledore was back, in stark contrast to Dumbledore, who was calmly explaining about his situation with the Governors, who seemed to be under some kind of impression there families would have been cursed if they hadn't agreed to the suspension. From the expression Lucius had on his face, it wasn't hard to realise who, precisely, had issued that threat in the first place.

While Lucius was demanding details, however, Harry's attention was caught by Dobby, who had realised that he was there, and the House Elf was currently doing the weirdest game of charades that Harry had ever seen. Staring at him intensely with his big green eyes meaningfully, he was pointing to the diary remains on the desk, then at Lucius, before punching himself in the head.

At first he was wondering if the Elf was crazy, before he suddenly realised exactly what Dobby was doing. He was punishing himself at the end, after he had just told Harry that the diary had been Lucius' all along. So that was how the little guy had known enough to tell him about the chamber. It seemed that Dobby realised the moment Harry had actually got it though, as he started twisting his ears in punishment.

Once Lucius had left the office, kicking Dobby all the way, Harry turned to Dumbledore. "Could I have that?" he asked.

Perhaps Dumbledore already had an idea what was going to happen, because he allowed it. Grabbing the diary, Harry quickly took of one of his sandals, lodged the book remains inside and launched the sandal at the back of the man's head, sending him stumbling forwards. Hands tucked into his pockets as if he wasn't standing there with one bare foot, Harry smirked as the furious man spun around, the sandal clenched in his hand.

"Thought you might like your diary back. I'm not a thief, after all."

The look of pure hate that Lucius had on his face was most interesting. Hell, he even left Snape's utter loathing in the dust. It really was fascinating. Wrenching the diary out of the sandal, he tossed it to the floor, diary remains clenched in white knuckled hands.

"You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Harry Potter," Lucius hissed softly. "They were meddlesome fools too.

Harry hissed back in Parseltongue. _"I could say anything right now and you'd flinch, wouldn't you?"_

Lucius, indeed, flinched. However, he soon covered it up, sneering at the amused Uchiha, before turning his attention to Dobby. "Come, Dobby." Lucius snapped, moving to leave, but the elf didn't follow. "I said, come!"

But Dobby didn't leave, as he was holding up the sandal as if it were some priceless treasure. "Master has given a Shoe," the elf said in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."

"What?" Lucius snarled, but faltered when his eyes fell on the sandal clutching in Dobby's hand.

"Got a shoe," Dobby repeated in disbelief. "Master threw it and Dobby caught it, and Dobby – Dobby if free."

Harry almost laughed at the look on the man's face. _I love loopholes!_

Still, it seemed Lucius most certainly wasn't amused as he yanked his wand from his cane. "You lost me my servant, boy!"

However, before Harry could even move, Dobby, surprisingly, came to his 'rescue'. "You shall not harm Harry Potter!"

There was a loud bang and Lucius was thrown backwards, crashing down the stairs three at a time and landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. Before Lucius could even try to attack again, Dobby, back straight and proud pointed his long finger at him threateningly.

"You shall go now," he said fiercely. "You shall not touch Harry Potter. You shall go now."

To the sound of Harry's laughing, Lucius could do nothing more than leave, hurrying out of sight. Who knew that the timid creature had such power? It was definitely worth losing a sandal over.

"Harry Potter freed Dobby!" the elf squealed in joy. "Harry Potter set Dobby free!"

"No problem. The guy's a jerk anyway," Harry shrugged before offering him a grin. "So….that clue you gave me. You meant that Tom Riddle was involved, but not the Mouldy wart, right?"

Dobby gave a nervous laugh, but nodded. "Dobby was giving Harry Potter a clue." He agreed.

"You might want to work on that a bit," Harry chuckled. "By the way, its Harry Uchiha-Potter. Or Harry Uchiha. Think you could call me that?"

"Oh, of course Harry Uchiha, sir!" Dobby said brightly.

"Oh, one last thing," Harry said, crouching down to his level, face as serious as he could make it. "Never try to save my life again." He smiled a closed eyed smile after that. "But if you need any help with anything, just ask."

Dobby grinned at him sheepishly a moment, before launching himself at him, hugging him tightly. "Dobby heard that Harry Potter was great," he sobbed happily. "But Harry _Uchiha_ is far greater than Dobby knew! Farewell, Harry Uchiha."

And with a final, loud crack, Dobby disappeared.

"I guess it's finally over," Harry murmured to himself as he looked around the now empty halls. Maybe he should just go down to the feast now and give himself a break from all this investigation business before he thought on everything that had happened.

He moved to leave, only to remember the stone floor felt very cold under his now bare foot. It seemed that Dobby had taken the item that set him free with him. The Uchiha couldn't help but sigh.

…_After I get some new sandals. _

**To Be Continued…**

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**Translation list:**

_**Translation List:**_

_(all Japanese words used in this chapter that are not present here have already been translated in other chapters.)_

**Chosha's Notes**

…_what is it with me and completely misjudging the length of Chamber of Secrets? Lol, honestly, I totally thought I'd be done with it. Well, I kind of am, I just have to do the aftermath, but I'm once more on twenty-something or other pages and if I add much more it'll really go over, so, I'll leave that until next chapter._

_How did everyone like the differences to canon here? I've read many crossovers where Harry has had different upbringing or been a reincarnation of someone or had different people helping him and its practically the same conversation with the same battle. However, I just thought it would be a waste to just kill off the Basilisk, and some people have expressed an interest in the Basilisk being a summon. So I thought, why not? As to how the Basilisk knows of summon tattoos or whatever, don't worry, I'll get around to explaining that in a chapter or two (as long as I haven't misjudged my chapter lengths again. Lol. But it's likely not going to have too many summons apart from in desperate situations. I'm trying to keep Harry's skill levels to a powerful, but not over powered level. As in trying to keep his power level appropriate for his rank._

_Some people wanted a Manda summon here, and it would have been interesting I guess, had I been wanting to kill he Basilisk off. However, apart from the fact I wanted to try to use the basilisk as a summon, there are two reasons this didn't happen – one, Harry has been told Manda demands human sacrifices. Can you really see Harry, as he is here, giving Manda human sacrifices of all things? But secondly, Harry isn't quite at that level just yet, summoning wise. He's not Naruto with near limitless chakra, so, unlike him, Harry's got to build it up over time. That's not to say Harry will never summon Manda, but I just want to bring out the big guns at a more appropriate time. When? Well, you'll find out._

_I did get asked about maybe having the Basilisk as Manda's cousin or something so he could suddenly start speaking Human and troll Riddle, but, well, considering both know Parseltongue and the summons seem to like speaking their own language when faced with them, well, it seemed a bit out of character to have two Parselmouths in the room and the snake starting to speak English, you know? I'm not even sure if it could speak English, now that I think about it – I mean, the summons talk to the ninja who speak Japanese, so it could be that if the Basilisk could talk a human language, and was related to Manda, its more likely it would speak Japanese, meaning Riddle wouldn't have understood a word anyway._

_Also, speaking about the Basilisk, I need to think of a good name to give him so I don't just call him 'the Basilisk' all the time. It needs to be Japanese in origin. Think in your reviews you could also suggest a name for him? I'll look them over and the best name given will be used for the Basilisk! (as well as your name being mentioned for your help) _

_Before anyone asks, I'll just talk about the fight scene. I know that most of the horcruxes were probably charmed to the teeth, but to me, the Diary, being the first Voldemort ever made, and when he was only a teenager, appeared to have the least amount of charms on it or protections. Hell, a twelve year old destroyed it. When you consider the Diary's 'protection' to, say, the Locket's one in book six, well, you get the idea. Voldemort probably wasn't expecting Lucius to just throw it out there to cause trouble. So that's my reasoning for why 'Accio' worked. The reason he didn't Accio it when Ginny stole it? Well, I think to Accio, you need to actually have some inkling as to where the item is. As Harry didn't know, he couldn't summon it. As for why chakra worked on the diary? Well, simple, Voldemort probably knew nothing of chakra and likely didn't ward against it. Also, since magic and chakra, in this story, are two different energies, or at least two different forms of energy, the chakra could cause damage. I hope this makes sense._

_Anyway, Review please! _

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **with the threat of the chamber gone, Hogwarts settles back into peace once more, and loose ends are tied up. It's time to return home, back to the hidden continent once again. What new adventures in Konoha await? What's been missed there while the business with the Basilisk was taken care of and what is the significance behind the odd tattoo gifted by the Basilisk deep within the Chamber? Next time on Uchiha Potter: The Homecoming._

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	20. Chapter 19: The Homecoming

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Please note there is questions in the Chosha's notes as I need a little help with something for the chapters to come. Please read and answer in a review after you've read the chapter to prevent spoilers.**_

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_With Ron and Lockhart in toe, Harry enters the chamber of secrets, but is forced to leave Ron behind when Lockhart causes a cave in that separates them. However, Harry faces Tom Riddle, the memory self of Voldemort in a struggle for Ginny's life. After a fierce struggle, Harry manages to destroy the pages of the diary and, thus, Riddle himself. In the process, Harry has gained himself a new summon in the form of the very basilisk that he had faced in the chamber. Saving Ginny, the chamber is closed once more. With Riddle gone, the mission is complete._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

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**Chapter Nineteen**

**The Homecoming**

The last weeks of Hogwarts was certainly interesting. With the threat of the Chamber gone, the tension that had been choking at the school ever since that first message had finally lifted and, with it, everyone could breath easier again. The cheer had been lifted further when the restorative solution had finally been finished and another feast was arranged as a 'welcome back'. It was the weirdest feast that Harry had ever been to. Everyone was dressed in their pyjamas, it lasted all night as well, as one after the other, the people who had been Petrified made their way down to the hall once they had recovered, not to mention that Hagrid had finally come back and had almost broken Ron and Harry's backs, tearfully hugging them in gratitude.

When Hermione finally turned up, no longer statue-like, but full of life once again, the first thing Harry did was clip her around the head.

"Harry! What-!"

"You…freaking…idiot!" he told her, eyes closed and fists clenched at his sides before he did something stupid. "Of all the idiotic things you could have…!" However, he couldn't bring himself to be angry, his throat clogging up and ended up just pulling his two friends into a hug, Hermione going red and Ron protesting. He was just glad that his failure to protect his friend hadn't resulted in anything permanently lasting. This time at least. But as a Ninja, he knew it likely wouldn't be the only time.

_I need…to reconsider this persona for Hogwarts…I'm in too deep._

"Just….don't do that again, got it?" he ordered finally as he pulled away once more and turned to stalk off.

"I'll try," Hermione said quietly. Obviously she must have realised what effect the attack on her had been on the boys. Still, he was sure his reaction confused her the most. Shaking off her confusion, she and Ron quickly caught up to Harry. "But you two figured it all out by yourselves! What happened while I was…um…out?" she added, seeing Harry's expression darken a bit

Well, at least her reaction was funny when they told her the censored version of what happened in the chamber ("What do you mean you fought the basilisk!") but when he told her about Lockhart, she spent a good ten minutes berating herself about her reactions to him for most of the year. Harry couldn't help but sigh in relief. It seemed with Lockhart gone, Hermione was no longer a Fan girl.

Everything was (mostly) regaining sanity again.

_About damned time!_

Exams had been cancelled, both because it wouldn't be fair on those who had been stuck in a comatose-like state for most of the year, and also as a treat for the school (considering how tense everyone had been since the whole thing started, it was doubtful that any of them had really been able to fully study. Not to mention passing exams when they had had Lockhart for a teacher would have been near impossible – Last Harry had heard, the guy was stuck in the mental ward of the Magical Hospital. All Defence Against the Dark Arts classes had been turned into free periods for the rest of the term.)

Lucius Malfoy had also been sacked as a school governor. It certainly seemed to shock Malfoy into silence that he barely even bothered anyone. Harry almost felt sorry for Douche-the-junior, so decided to have mercy on him instead of the end of school prank he had though of doing on him for most of the year. His Dad had lost his job and his servant (both of which were Harry's fault, technically) so that seemed the biggest prank that really could have been pulled on him to finish the year off with.

Yes, Harry was quite satisfied. That is….if it wasn't for one thing.

While Harry had secretly done his research into magic every time he had his Kage Bunshin forced to sit through Lockhart's classes throughout the year and he was keeping up with his training every morning before the rest of Gryffindor tower got up, Harry felt as though there had certainly been some problems this year. Maybe he had got into his act as 'normal' wizard, but he felt that, really, he should have noticed what was going on a lot faster than he had done. But there was also the part of him that was emotionally attached to his Hogwarts friends too. Because he had been focused on finding out who had stolen the Diary, he had completely neglected to think that Tom would have picked up on his personality through that written conversation and that he would immediately move on to get the information from Ginny and target one of his friends also.

He felt somewhat conflicted about that. After all, while he greatly cared for the friends he had made there, Riddle had also used that knowledge to lure him to the chamber. And unlike his friends in Konoha, his wizard friends were civilians, and far more at risk. He understood the teachings of team work in Konoha, but despite their potential, they weren't a genin team

He would have to reflect a bit on the whole thing once he had time – after all, he wanted to not only learn about seals to avoid having people steal important things from him again, and he also needed to look into not relying on fighting with only his Sharingan. Facing the basilisk showed him that. He also needed to find out about that weird seal that the Basilisk had placed on him too. Then there was his position as a ninja amongst civilians. If he wasn't careful, his 'cover' would become far too real, and end up more as a weakness instead, as Riddle used against him already

Still, Harry didn't really have much time to think on it, because the second year students had been informed to extra subjects that they would be taking from the next year onwards. They had been considering giving them out in the Easter holidays, but with all the trouble that had came about from the chamber and the fact some students who were in the second year had been petrified, they had put it off a little longer until those students were awake once more. While studying on his on was interesting, a little directed study never hurt anyone either and he checked over his choices. Technically he could have taken all of them and had bunshin go to the classes, but how would he explain if one of his clones was hit a bit too hard and poofed into smoke? There was also the fact wizards seemed to like doing things he really didn't need, nor did anyone else really need even in mundane situations, so he decided to check what was available.

He quickly decided against Divination. While knowing the future was all well and good it appeared only a few people ever truly had the talent to see the future and, when he asked around, it appeared many people just made things up. The Weasley twins and their friend Lee had told him it was a good place to get an easy grade if you made up doom and gloom. Ron had immediately gone for it, but Harry pushed it aside. He didn't need something useless and he highly doubted he had this 'inner eye' anyway, otherwise he surely would have 'seen' something by now with all the situations he'd been in.

Plus it seemed more like it would be up Hyuuga Neji's alley, talking about fate and the like and it always annoyed him, especially since he didn't believe in predetermined destiny.

Muggle Studies had potential, had Harry been having more missions with the mundane civilians, but he doubted they even knew the ninja world existed, never mind that they would ever hire a ninja. Unlike the wizards, Harry indeed knew how a fridge worked, how you turned on the light or a TV and what the function of a rubber duck was. Ninety nine percent of the time, Muggle Studies would likely be a waste of time.

Harry did find a definite interest when his eyes landed on Ancient Runes on the list. From what he gathered, a lot of the rune-based magical practices seemed to have similarities to sealing in the ninja world. That would certainly make for good information and he had known that sealing was something he needed to learn and thus, immediately put his name down for that one. It would, after all, be extremely useful where his job was concerned if nothing else and if it sparked his interest then it had to be at least interesting to the ninja, right?

With Ancient Runes now part of his courses, Harry continued down the list.

He briefly contemplated Arithmancy, but that, also, seemed to be more along the divination side, only using numbers instead of whatever mystical ideas that Divination had. In the end, he decided against it, but did make a note to at least borrow Hermione's books on occasion if only to see if the probabilities and such and the mathematical side of future sight had any more weight than its mystical cousin (since it appeared she was going to be taking that class. Along with everything else. Though unless Hermione was secretly a ninja or something he had no idea how she was going to pull that off. Certainly curious…) When he asked, Hermione seemed quite happy to lend him the book if he wanted to read up on it, as long as she wasn't using it, of course.

In the end, Harry decided that his last subject would be Care of Magical Creatures. He had a Basilisk summon now after all (or at least had some kind of bond to a basilisk), plus one of his brothers had a Giant fox sealed inside of him. That wasn't even mentioning all the monsters and weird creatures Harry seemed to meet, either in Hogwarts or at home. With luck like that, he wouldn't be surprised if he ended up running into more weird creatures in the future, so it was always best to be prepared. And, who knew, maybe one day they might end up getting a Cerberus or something to add to Konoha's protections or something.

Ron seemed a bit put out though, especially since it seemed Divination, that he had put down on what his twin brothers had said, would now be taken with only Hermione. Not that Hermione was bad or anything, but it just meant he couldn't flunk his way through it as he was probably planning to do. Harry just shrugged at him. Honestly, just because they were friends didn't mean they had to be joined at the hip or something after all.

With that done and out of the way, before anyone really knew it, it was time to be returning home.

The train back had been interestingly distracting. The twins had joined them, along with Neville – Harry realised he really hadn't spent that much time with him that year and resolved to rectify that next year now that the basilisk business had been more or less sorted out, if he could get his head back in gear, of course – and, surprisingly, Ginny. Apart from flushing almost every time Harry looked in her direction, she seemed to have some control over herself and even joined in with them, which was much more than she did on the way there. They spent a rather interesting trip as he watched them playing exploding snap, setting off the last of the Twin's fireworks and practicing the disarming charm – since most of them wouldn't be able to do magic until they returned to Hogwarts. (Harry pitied those poor, poor people.) Harry would have joined in more than just the spell practice, but he was trying to reset the emotional boundaries a bit more so as to avoid another incident like with Riddle targeting his friends to 'get his attention' again. Thankfully, the others seemed to think he was just missing home or something, so they didn't bother him too much, to which Harry was silently grateful.

Finally, the train slowed to a stop and they were all moving back towards the crowds of people waiting for their sons, daughters or charges to return to them

"Hm….I wonder if my brothers came to pick me up again?" Harry hummed as he looked around through the crowds.

"Will they be proud, your family, with what you did?" Hermione asked curiously as Harry finally spotted them standing once more with Iruka and waved too them.

"Proud? Probably," Harry admitted absently with a small smile. "If they don't try to kill me for being ten foot within range of a Basilisk, of course. They might murder me from the shock."

"_Harry-kun, what's this I hear about you fighting a fifty foot long killer snake?"_ Iruka growled.

"Case and point…" Harry murmured, before laughing sheepishly as he met the Chunin's gaze, switching to Japanese. "_Heh, heh_…_Uh…Hi Iruka-sensei! Um…"_ He cowered under the man's glare. _"…think we can avoid the Oinin this time…?"_ He squeaked. When had Iruka become as scary as Anko?

"_Run, Harry, Run!"_ Naruto called to him teasingly.

"_Naruto…not…helping…"_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Thankfully, Iruka seemed to manage to hold himself back this year, probably remembering the fact that he, Sasuke and Naruto had practically eaten him out of house and home to compensate for having had senbon thrown at him for most of an afternoon due to Iruka throwing a fit at what happened with the Philosopher's Stone. That was probably the only reason that Harry was able to dump his stuff back at his apartment, promise his brother's they would be eating out at Ichiraku's to celebrate his return – looked like that might end up becoming a ritual of some kind - and was actually able to get to the Hokage's office to report in relatively on time in comparison to last year.

Knocking on the door, Harry headed inside.

"Hey, Ojiisan," he said seeing the old Hokage for once, not at his desk, but sitting on a cushion and, pipe in mouth, seemed to be concentrating on some kind of picture or something on a canvas. "Didn't know you were into art."

Sarutobi looked around from his position and smiled. "Ah, you're back on time this time, Harry-kun. No more visits to the Oinin?"

"Hopefully not for a long, long time," Harry replied with relish as he took one of the chairs, watching Sarutobi for a long moment as he finished off what he was doing. He longed to ask, but considering this was the Hokage, who had a secret porn stash and stalked people with that crazy crystal globe of his decided that he honestly didn't want to know. "I happen to like having the feeling in my butt, than you."

Sarutobi chuckled a little at that before he moved from the cushion on the floor. "I hear that you had a rather….interesting…year at Hogwarts from your letters and from Dumbledore himself. Is this going to become a habit of yours, Harry-kun?" Sarutobi asked after he settled himself behind his desk again, frowning ever so slightly. Harry could tell though that he wasn't annoyed at Harry, per say, but more on the information he had been given, or perhaps with Dumbledore simply expecting the ninja he hired to deal with a situation undirected. It was hard to say.

"Its not like I was exactly trying to find out about it," Harry huffed as he leaned back in his chair, remembering the night he saw Dobby for the first time and learned about the 'danger' that would come upon the school. "It sort of just decided to creep up on me in the middle of the night and tried to force me to go home."

"Ah, you mean this 'Dobby' character you informed me about who was taking your mail before?" Sarutobi asked, raising a brow as he pulled the pipe from his mouth.

"That's the one."

"I trust that won't be a problem again then?"

"No, I made him promise not to try and save my life again," Harry waved it off. Seeing the Hokage's look, he expanded on it. "He thought that stopping my mail would stop me from wanting to come back. But that was when he wasn't desperate. He actually charmed a bludger to pretty much try and knock me off my broom and broke my _arm_, thinking that if I was really injured then I wouldn't stay! Freaking crazy elf. Mind you, for a crazy elf, he was pretty cool in the end, I guess." He added with a shrug. He snickered in remembrance of the horrified look Lucius had on his face as Dobby sent him flying down the stairs. "Besides, even if someone did try and steal my mail again, I made sure that my owls know what to do with them. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to involve family." He frowned, remembering that Sasuke had sent him all those valentine chocolates to him from his fan girls. Maybe he should teach them to differentiate between normal good mail and the hell that was valentines? Always something to consider.

Harry was sure he saw Sarutobi fighting a smile, but when he turned to look, the man looked away, coughing into his hand in a way that Harry was certain was actually hiding a snigger.

_Bet the old man was in on that, too,_ he couldn't help but think sourly.

"That seems like it could be rather an interesting story," Sarutobi said once he stopped 'coughing'. "Maybe one for another time though. After all, I do need your report for the situation."

"Oh, yeah," Harry said, pulling himself straighter in his seat. He felt like he was going to have to explain what happened about five or six times over before he could finally shove it to the back of his mind and let 'Memory-mort' finally rot and die in some dark unused crevice so he could get onto more important things, like training in seals and fighting blind. At least this time he didn't have to edit the story at all. He had been keeping the Hokage posted throughout the year as it was, so at least he didn't have to go over the entire story like he had to in McGonagall's office either (no matter now edited it was) and could just go straight from when the madness of the last few days before they entered the chamber, up until they had finally managed to get out once more.

When he mentioned about the mark that the Basilisk had left on his arm, the Sandaime seemed extremely interested. "Let me see," he asked, holding out his hand expectantly. Shrugging – he'd been hoping to ask about it anyway – Harry rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm. Sarutobi took it gently and brought it to him, looking it over with a critical eye. It seemed to take forever and Harry was sure he was starting to lose the blood in his arm when the Hokage finally released it once more and sat back, sucking in his pipe thoughtfully, a faint frown on his face.

"Well?" Harry asked as he brought back his arm, rubbing it to get the feeling back in his fingers once more. "Know anything about it, Ojiisan?"

"Well, it certainly seems like a summoning tattoo, though I'll admit I haven't seen one quite like it, even though its form indeed resembles other Summon tattoos. Perhaps it is simply an archaic form of the mark? Or perhaps it is because the serpent that gave it to you wasn't a normal Summon Snake. I would advise keeping an eye on it at least. If it turns out to be something other than a summon mark, then report back to me."

"Sure," the Uchiha nodded before sighing. "I guess I really should have gone back down there and asked the thing what the heck it thought it was doing," Harry grumbled.

"Well, it could serve you well in the long run if it is indeed what I believe it is," Sarutobi pointed out. "After all, this does mean you're the only known shinobi in the hidden continent currently who holds a summon contract with a basilisk."

"That's true. Still…I want to know how exactly it even knew what a summon contract was," Harry frowned. "I mean...how'd a magical snake become aware of a ninja seal?"

"Hm…" Sarutobi closed his eyes for a moment, his forehead creasing further. "It is possible that in the time that this 'Salazar Slytherin' was around, that the ninja world was not yet 'hidden' or he happened to stumble across our lands, taking into account that, at the time, the ninja villages hadn't even been formed then and wouldn't be for many years. Perhaps in that time, this 'Salazar' discovered about summons and made the Basilisk his somehow, which is why the basilisk would only respond to Slytherin and his heirs before you. It's always something to ask the Basilisk about when you do end up summoning it. Of course, I don't recommend you summon it right away. The bigger the summon is, the harder it is to summon it and the more chakra you need to do so. Train yourself upwards in the summons first before you attempt to summon it."

"Yeah, I know," Harry nodded. "Anko-sensei told me. And I'm not sure I really want to summon the boss snake just yet anyway – he wants human sacrifices or something like that, no way I'm summoning him unless I can think of something to offer him instead of people. But I'd rather not end up draining myself of chakra just to ask the Basilisk a question. Speaking of snakes…" Harry pulled out the sample of the skin of the basilisk and passed it to the Hokage. "I got this off a shed basilisk skin we found in the chamber. It looked pretty armoured, so I was wondering if it might be useful for anything. I mean, the snake was fifty foot long so if it is useful I'm sure I can go back and grab some more to make something from it."

"Hm…" The Hokage looked it over for a moment, before nodding. "I'll have a team look into it. It indeed could be useful if there is some properties in it. If nothing else, I doubt anyone else in the hidden continent would think to use basilisk scales."

"Most people don't even own a basilisk," Harry chuckled. "Mind you, I'm not even sure how many ninja have access to the Wizarding world."

"Oh, I'm certain we are not the only ones," Sarutobi hummed. "But even then, if the skin proves to be useful, it will still prove advantageous. If nothing else, your teacher might be able to tell us about some of its properties, taking into consideration her links with snakes also. I'll pass her the idea on."

"How's Anko-sensei, anyway?" Harry asked curiously. "I want to ask her something about my training."

"She's been helping out in the interrogation department," Sarutobi said. "I think she's been rather bored without you to train."

"Torment, you mean," Harry snorted, though there was no real bite in it. To be honest, he did miss his sensei more than he thought he would. Apart from perhaps Snape, there was really hardly anyone with a good sense of wit about them to banter with, and there was definitely no one he could spar with to work out any frustrations (he'd probably just flatten them or something, except from perhaps the competent teachers, and even then he didn't know how many of them were actually aware that he wasn't just your average Wizard). "Bet she made herself right at home there." Interrogation seemed right up the crazy kunoichi's alley.

"Well, she did do a lot of work in that area before she took you on as a student, so it wasn't too much of a change," Sarutobi smiled. "Speaking of your sensei, she seemed rather impressed that you completed another S-ranked mission by yourself, even if it was rather sudden and unexpected."

"Does this mean she's not going to throw me into the forest of death for some kind of test this year?" Harry drawled, ignoring the traitorous part of his mind that told him he could have done it better if he wasn't too busy playing wizard. He told that part of his mind to take a hike.

Sarutobi looked pointedly at the ceiling, saying something barely audible, but if Harry didn't know any better, he just said, "….not alone at least."

"What was that?" Harry said suspiciously, leaning forwards and narrowing his eyes at the old man.

"Nothing."

"It certainly didn't sound like 'nothing'."

"You must be hearing things, Harry-kun. Anyway, just to let you know, Anko expects to see you tomorrow morning. Something about checking to see you've not 'gone soft or something'."

"Hmmm…." Harry hummed, still suspicious, but he doubted that he was going to get anything out of the old man, so let it slide for now, "Whatever. I'll make sure I prepare just in case she does end up dragging me into the Forest of Death again. Anyway, I should be going. Naruto and Sasuke have decided that they must monopolise my time for a while since they couldn't come on Christmas."

Sarutobi chuckled. "Have fun then, Harry-kun. Try to behave yourself."

"Because you totally won't be spying with that crystal ball of yours, will you?" Harry shot back with a half grin, raising his eyebrow before heading off. "See you later, Ojiisan!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Ah, Ramen, how I missed thee," Harry sighed after he slurped up his first mouthful of noodles since he had left on his 'mission' last September. "Not as much as dango, but it's a close second. A _really_ close second."

"They still don't have Ramen at that Hogwarts place?" Naruto said in a way that one would have thought he was talking about some great tragedy. "That's horrible, dattebayo…"

"Just makes it all the nicer when I can have it," Harry hummed pleasantly as he continued to turn his attention to his food.

"You're weird, Niisan," Naruto protested. "Ramen's good all the time!"

"Not everyone's as obsessed with it as you are, Naruto," Sasuke pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"Well, they should be," Naruto puffed out his cheeks. "When I'm Hokage, I'm going to make everyone eat Ramen."

"The village is doomed."

"Oi!"

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at that. He really had missed his little brothers and after everything from the past year, Harry felt that spending some kind with the two of them was just the right way to spend his 'holiday' time. They were currently sitting at the Ichiraku Ramen bar, both Uchiha sitting either side of their blond adoptive brother. Harry had come home from reporting to the Hokage, only to practically get accosted by the two ten/eleven year olds and practically dragged to Ichiraku's. As much as Sasuke might complain about the amount of Ramen that Naruto ate, coming to Ichiraku's had always been a trip for special occasions and having their brother back after nine months, it seemed, was most definitely a special occasion. Harry had already filled them in on what he had done while at Hogwarts while they were waiting for their meals to arrive, but the subject finally got derailed when the large bowels were placed in front of him.

Harry honestly hadn't realised how much he missed Japanese cooking though. The stuff served at Hogwarts was nice enough, though was often very rich and rather greasy at times – there was probably a reason why wizards all seemed to have no stamina. He shook his head fondly before turning his attention back to his brothers once more.

"Moving on from Naruto's 'Death by Ramen' idea," Harry said dryly. "What about you guys? Have I missed anything of interest here?"

"You mean apart from trying to survive a chocolate avalanche after Valentine's Day?" Sasuke asked, eyebrow ticking.

"Oh yeah," Harry hummed, before reaching over behind Naruto and smacked the raven haired boy over the back of the head. Naruto choked slightly on his ramen with laughter. "That was for sticking all those chocolates on me! Though at least they made good gags choking someone with them," Harry added with a sigh, shaking his head as Sasuke shot him a glare and rubbed the back of his head where Harry hit him. Not that the glare lasted that long since he half grinned at the reminder of all those chocolates he had sent off.

"Bet the look on your face was funny. I should have asked one of your friends for pictures," Sasuke smirked.

"Expect retribution," Harry growled.

"Counting on it," Sasuke drawled.

"Brat," Harry grumbled, rolling his eyes. Why had he missed these two again?

"Sasuke's fangirls've been funny," Naruto laughed.

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed. Obviously, he had been hoping that Naruto wouldn't say anything about said girls

The elder Uchiha smirked, interest peaked. "Oh? What have they been up to?"

Sasuke growled something that Harry was sure was 'I'll get you later, dobe,' but he soon resigned himself. "They've been arguing about what kind of hair style I like for them." He grumbled.

"Yup, they're all growing their hair out because he 'likes' long hair, and then arguing about who has the better hair will be the one Sasuke likes!" Naruto cackled.

"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke growled. "Like you can talk anyway since you've got a stalker."

Harry almost spat some of his noodles across the room, but managed to prevent himself from doing so, only to start choking instead. It took him a good minute or so before he managed to breath properly again. "W-what?" he gasped out, rubbing his chest. "When did this happen?"

"Stalker? What Stalker?" Naruto gaped. "I don't have a Stalker."

"Ugh, you're so blind sometimes," Sasuke groaned at the blonde before turning to Harry "Well, you remember how I've mentioned about that Hyuuga Hinata, right?"

"The one you thought might be interested in Naruto?" Harry said, remembering how he had once wondered how Neji would react to that if he knew of his cousin's interest in his blonde brother. "Hyuuga's cousin, right?"

"That the one," Sasuke said. "Well, I was hiding from the fan girls up a tree – don't laugh, Aniki – and Naruto was looking for me to tell me the coast was clear. I was going to call down to him when I noticed Hinata there. I thought it was a coincidence at first, but I kept noticing her following us around. So I made sure to stay away a bit and watched while we were at the academy, and she was watching him all the time. She's been stalking him for a few weeks now."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I never thought the Uchiha curse was contagious."

"Maybe after hanging around with us for so long, Uchiha pheromones started to rub off on him?" Sasuke said thoughtfully, tapping his chopsticks on his cheek.

"What are you guys talking about?" Naruto protested. "Come on, come on, stop talking about me like I'm not here, dattebayo!"

"Could it be…?"

"It's possible…"

"What?" Naruto cried, panicked. "What is it!"

"Naruto…" Harry said as both he and Sasuke turned as one to Naruto, who stiffened. "You….have got your very first Fan Girl!"

"What!"

"There's no going back now," Sasuke said sorrowfully, patting his friend/brother/classmate on the shoulder. "I'll pray for you damned soul."

"You are now officially an honouree Uchiha Adult," Harry proclaimed. "An Uchiha male is only classed as a man when he gets his first fangirl." He blinked. "Well, so says the _unwritten_ rules of the clan, of course."

"And once you get one, that's when it starts," Sasuke said darkly, clenching his fists on his knees, a faint shiver running through him. "It starts with just the watching you, but eventually, a pack will form. And they will become this ravenous beast that will forever stalk you and try to get you to be 'theirs' for the rest of your life. They will _never leave_."

"It's fine now, when there's just one," Harry told Naruto – who's blue eyes were now almost impossible wide – seriously as he reached over to pat Sasuke's shoulder to calm his traumatised brother. "But eventually, they'll multiply. Its like a bug that other girls will catch and they become the rabid creatures that you see Sasuke and I have to deal with."

"But…but… I don't want to get mobbed, dattebayo!" Naruto wailed.

"Not even by Sakura-chan?" Sasuke asked slyly.

"Well maybe by Sakura-cha– no! I don't want to get mobbed at all!" Naruto managed to save himself just too late as Sasuke and Harry both descended into laughter. "You guys!" Naruto wailed. "This is serious! Get your phere-whatsits off meeeee!"

Of course, this did very little to stop the two Uchiha from descending even further into laughter.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was later on that afternoon as Harry was heading back from Ichiraku's that he caught sight of a familiar long-haired boy alongside an equally familiar girl with hair in buns and a not so familiar dark haired boy, looking as if the three of them were currently busy painting a fence of all things. Mentally, he calculated in his head and realised that he must have missed the Genin exams for this year. Bearing in mind if Harry had graduated at the regular time with his year mates he would have done so last summer, then that meant...

"Hey, I'll catch up to you in a minute," Harry told his brothers.

"Don't take too long," Sasuke shot back. "You said you'd be spending the day with us after all, so you're helping us train whether you like it or not."

"I know, I know, don't nag," Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll see you back at the house."

Offering a quick wave over his shoulder, he quickly made his way over to the two he recognised and put his hands on their shoulders, making them both jump a mile. "Hey Hyuuga, hey Tenten," he said brightly. "Miss me?"

"Watch it, Uchiha!" Neji growled.

"Harry," Tenten sighed, putting a hand over her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry, sorry," Harry said, waving it off, ignoring Neji's irritated look as him making them jump managed to get paint on his shirt. "But I just thought I'd come say hi, especially since…" he tapped their foreheads. Instead of blank skin (or in Neji's case, bandages) there was instead the metallic plate and Konoha symbol. "I see you guys passed the genin exams. Sorry I missed them. Congratulations"

"Yeah, great, now go away," Neji growled, turning back to the fence, staring at it as if it was someone who just killed a bird or something.

"Sheesh, someone's in a bad mood," Harry hummed. "Guess you've already got fed up of D-classed missions, huh? You have my sympathy." Really, they really did have his sympathy. He remembered how he had eventually blown up at the Hokage about the idiotic things he had had to do too.

"Hey, who is this person anyway?" Asked the new teammate and Harry finally got a good look at him – and was pretty hard pressed not to stare, because those eyes, those eyelashes….but it was those eyebrows that really caught his attention. These big, thick fuzzy eyebrows like two caterpillars crawling on his face. It was like a train wreck, disturbing but you just couldn't look away because dammit, they were huge!

If anything, Harry could feel Neji's annoyance spike further as the other spoke. It didn't take a genius to realise that Neji most certainly did not appreciate being teamed with him. If Harry's guess was correct, because Neji was top of his year of Genin, and Tenten was decent as a Kunoichi as well from what he could gather, then the new guy had to be the 'dead last' of the year. Or at least if his calculations of how Genin teams were put together was right. Ouch. Harry couldn't help but think the kid had to deal with some crap from Neji for that. Don't get him wrong, he was friends with Neji, but he knew just how much of a bastard Neji could be sometimes.

"Oh, right," Tenten said, realising their team mate didn't know their slightly older friend. "This is Uchiha Harry, a friend of ours who graduated two years ago. Harry-sempai, this is our team mate, Rock Lee."

"Heh, cool name," Harry couldn't help but note. Seriously, he kind of liked it. Or maybe it was because he knew English so it's meaning felt a bit different from what people would see in their usual language. "Nice to meet you, Lee."

"You…you are the Uchiha Harry that has been mentioned before," Lee said, those impossibly round eyes seemed to, if possible, become even rounder. "You're from the clan once hailed to produce geniuses."

…_Way to make me sound dumb…_Harry couldn't help but think, but he was sure the guy didn't mean it like that. _Still, 'once hailed'? Makes it sound almost like he's not including me and Sasuke. Still, it's probably not what he meant, so I'll behave._

"The only reason he could impress you is because you're destined to always be a loser," Neji growled back, barely ducking when Harry moved to clip him over the head when he noticed Lee wilt slightly. _Now that was definitely rude!_

"Don't start with the destiny crap," Harry shot back. "You know it seriously irritates me, sheesh…" He looked back over to Lee. "Don't let what this guy says get to you. He can be pretty dumb at times with things like that."

"He can't even do Ninjutsu or Genjutsu," Neji snorted. "How's he even supposed to be a ninja?"

"Focus on Taijutsu?" Harry suggested, though inwardly he wasn't sure if that would work or not. But then, Lee had passed the genin exams, so there had to be some kind of possibility there, otherwise the academy wouldn't have passed him.

Lee's eyes brightened at that. It was odd to see such a twinkle in those huge eyes, but at the same time, at least he had cheered up, right? "See! My dream isn't stupid," Lee shot to his team mates. Neji just frowned further, while Tenten looked at least a little sheepish. "I will become a great ninja with only Taijutsu! And Gai-sensei also believes that I can do so if I try!"

"…Did I just start something….?" Harry asked Tenten under his breath as Neji snapped at Lee again with some new irritated response.

"This is normal," Tenten sighed.

_I thought team mates were supposed to get along since they were working together…? Hey…wait a minute…_

"Gai-sensei?" he asked incredulously. "You mean _Maito Gai_ is your sensei?"

Honestly, when he had revealed to them that Mitarashi Anko was his sensei, they had given him such looks of pity that it had certainly put him on edge, wondering what to expect. Sure Anko could act like a crazy female Naruto at times, and it had certainly taken him a while to warm up to her, Harry could honestly say that he and Anko got on better than one would expect. After all, he survived training with her more often than not, and they had definitely come to an understanding over dango back in Swamp country. To think, those very same people who had offered him so much pity before because of Anko, were now the students of the one Jonin that everyone, even those who didn't fully know him by name, were fearful of. Hell, if it could cower even the most stoic of the Uchiha back in the day that Harry had to find out the guy's name if only so he could offer some warning as he ran away from any sight of spandex greenness, not to mention the fact that even Neji, who overheard Harry's incredulousness, winced, then he knew that they could just have all that pity back and then some.

_Isn't there a law somewhere that protects innocent Genin from being tortured or something? Because I'm beginning to think not…_

"You know about Gai-sensei?" Lee said brightly, practically _gushing_ of all things. "Guy-sensei is the coolest! He practically GLOWS with cool!"

"…He glows something…" Harry managed, a little balked by the enthusiasm that Lee was showing for him. Sure he knew that Gai was a Taijutsu expert, so maybe that was it, but 'cool' wasn't a word that he would use for 'Konoha's Green Beast'. However, Harry couldn't really think up anything else to say to that as a shadow suddenly fell over him, and a sense of dread washed over him.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

_Oh no…I just finished dealing with one grinning idiot, now him!_

Harry quickly dodged out of the way, skidding to a stop behind Neji just as the green devil himself crashed down hard in the place that Harry had just been standing seconds before. Honestly, if he hadn't moved and wasn't now using his friend as a shield he would have just been crushed by the great spandex monster that was Maito Gai. Even Tenten, who hda had previously been standing beside jumped back a few spaces for fear of being hit by Gai's overwhelming enthusiasm.

"My most youthful team!" Gai said jovially. "You must not become discouraged and continue your mission! I shall inspire you with my fantastic powers of YOUTH!" He reached to….somewhere – his hip pouch maybe? – and pulled out three one-piece suits. Before him he could see Neji recoil in horror and he saw Tenten edge closer to both him and Neji as if looking for some kind of solace. No wonder, because Gai was holding up hell. A green and spandexy _hell_…

And his eyes….oh god, his eyes glinted in a manner that Harry was sure shouldn't be allowed. How can anyone be so enthused and happy holding out those….those crimes against fashion? Not that Harry was a fashion expert, but you would have to be half blind and dumb not to recoil at the sight of those…those…_things_. But if that was the case….why the heck was Lee looking so adoringly at them!

"To help you find the energy, I have got you these to draw out the springtime of youth from your very souls!" Gai beamed, teeth glinting.

If anything Tenten and Neji drew closer to Harry in horror, almost begging their Uchiha friend for some kind of protection, but Lee….poor foolish Lee, he had jumped forwards and taken one of those suits in pure reverence, eyes watering with suppressed tears, but rather than ones of a man knowing he was walking to his doom, they were watering with glee and happiness that Harry thought he needed to change his mind on the boy – clearly training in only Taijutsu meant he got smashed head first into too many rocks because how could someone look so happy with that monstrosity? At least his two friends were sane. Though Harry wondered if Gai was as sadistic as Anko could be at times and would force all three to wear it-

Harry balked in utter horror at the image that jumped up in his mind of all three in bright green spandex forming the odd poses with bowl cut hair and glinting grins. He had to turn away, gripping his head, terrified he would drive himself mad at the image of…of Gai clones everywhere.

_My miiiiiiind! It buuuuuuuuuurns!_

"Gai-sensei!" Lee said, saluting the man as Harry managed to pull himself out of a torment that only the Tsukuyomi could ever compare to. "I'll wear it with pride! I'll show you my youth! With that and your Taijutsu training, I can't loose!"

Harry could only watch in morbid fascination as Gai's eyes filled with tears in return. "Your spirit shines so brightly! I'm honoured to have such a student like you!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!

"Oh, Gai-sensei!"

"Oh, Lee!"

"Oh brother…." Harry muttered. Honestly, he'd never seen ninja with such contagious cases of madness before. And what was with that weird rainbow and water crashing on rocks back there? Was that a Genjutsu or something to try and envelop everyone into that madness? From the looks on Tenten's face and even Neji's face, he could only guess this was a common occurrence.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Gai heard Harry's comment as he immediately rounded on the now terrified Uchiha. "You there!"

"H-hai?" Harry squeaked weakly, somehow managing to achieve octaves he hadn't been able to since he was three.

"You must be Mitarashi Anko's most youthful student, Uchiha Harry! She has spoken about you at length, you must burn brightly with youthfulness that even though you have only recently returned from a long and difficult mission that you would shower your help upon my team!"

"Uh….yeah….sure…" Harry managed, looking for all routs of escape before Gai could even think about trying to stuff him into one of those spandex suits. "Now that I'm done, I should go and send time with my brothers, you know, they miss me after being gone for so long and everything. Catch you later," he added to the last two members of Team Gai who looked at him pleadingly to stay, but Harry ignored them. After all, he needed to survive to meet Anko tomorrow, otherwise she'd dig him up, resurrect him just to murder him again for missing her training.

_Besides, I was only put in Gryffindor because Malfoy was in Slytherin. Bravery's all well and good but sometimes, retreat is the best option. Especially if I'm going to keep some semblance of sanity. My poor mind will never be the same after that horrifying image!_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The next day, Harry made his way to the training area where Anko had said that she was going to be meeting with him for training. Nothing much had really changed there, the memorial was still as gleaming as ever, the posts looked like there was remnants of rope left – obviously they had been used in some exam or another. The only difference was a man in a Jonin jacket with a lower face mask and an eye covered by his Hitae ate was watching the stone quite steadily. The wind moving his silverish hair was the only movement that Harry could see from him. The appearance looked a little familiar. He thought he might have been pointed out to him before…Hatake-san, maybe? At least, he thought it might be Hatake Kakashi. He certainly remembered some clan members complained about lateness or something like that before.

He seemed to realise he was being watched, because his only visible eye turned to him suddenly and Harry stiffened at being spotted before scolding himself. He hadn't been doing anything wrong, why should he get all uptight about it?

Shaking it off, he offered a slight smile and a wave, before moving to a place to wait for Anko. Hatake (if it was Hatake Kakashi) seemed to stiffen ever so slightly and Harry was sure he was followed by that eye for a long moment, but when he turned to look back, leaning his back against one of the trees, the man had already vanished, the faint wisps of smoke his only indication that the Jonin must have Shunshined away.

"….Weird…" Harry murmured slightly.

"Oh? Do you know Kakashi, Midori-me?"

"So it was him," Harry mused. "I knew of him more than knew him exactly," looked up at the tree branch where the familiar voice was to see his sensei crouching there and grinned slightly. "Hey, Anko-sensei. Missed me?"

"I was boooored," Anko whined. "People just aren't as fun to play with as you are. They get all scared way too easily."

Harry couldn't help but laugh slightly at that, but got up from the tree. "I would have thought you had lots of people to torment there."

"They're freaking Pansies," Anko complained. Me and Ibiki could break them in minutes. I still haven't broken you yet either. They just don't give me a challenge. But I hear you completed an S-classed mission at that Pig-farts-"

"Hogwarts"

"-Place and I have to say, I didn't think you had it in you. I have to say, I'm impressed, kid. Either that or the standards are really low for missions there."

"I have a new pet snake."

"Ooooh?" Anko certainly looked interested at that and Harry pulled down his sleeve and showed her the new mark that was on his arm. Oddly, Harry was sure he saw her grimace ever so slightly – maybe she had some bad associations with summoning tattoos or something? Or maybe it reminded her of that person she always hinted to but never named? – but she at least gave him a grin, even if there was still a slightly darker glint to her eye. "Well, we'll certainly have to keep an eye on it, but if it is a summon tatto, you'll have to show me when you can. I hear from the reports you sent on your own training you at the medium sized snakes now and I hear it's an interesting and something of a big pet you have there."

"Something like that," Harry agreed, covering the mark with his hand thoughtfully. "Actually, I've got a few things to ask you about training concerning that. Do you know anything about Fuinjutsu?"

"Fuinjutsu?" Anko blinked at him for a moment, before tapping her cheek. "Not personally…"

_Well, it was worth a shot. _"Do you know anyone who might?" Harry added. _After all, if I can learn sealing here and Ancient Runes, I might be able to combine them both and make something stronger._

"What's got you so interested in sealing anyway?" Anko asked, her eyes quickly flicking to the mark on his arm.

"No, no, it's not that," Harry sighed and rubbed his temples. "Let's just say that despite booby-trapping my trunk, someone still ended up stealing something from me and I don't think that's good for the future. But, well, when I started to think about the idea, it just got me interested, you know?"

"Hm…well, I might know someone," Anko admitted, her expression clearing somewhat – Harry was almost curious why she immediately thought the basilisks mark was the problem. "But I'd have to run it passed him. It might work out to my advantage anyway."

…Why did he just have a cold shiver when she said that? "Uh…what advantage…?" he asked weakly, though he wasn't overly sure he really wanted to know, considering what crazy ideas his Sensei sometimes had.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, Midori-me," Anko teased, flicking his nose and Harry glared at her, rubbing the stinging feature. Crazy woman. Obviously she wasn't going to tell him though, so he decided to give up on asking about that, for now at least.

"How about fighting blind?" Harry asked finally, receiving a slightly odd look from his teacher. No doubt she was wondering why he had come up with such training idea. However, at least she seemed to be seriously considering it, which was a bonus.

"Fighting blind, huh?" Anko's face broke into a grin and Harry wondered if he had just signed his death warrant. "I think I can help you with that," she purred before laughing and Harry could only sink in on himself.

_Yep….definitely signed my death warrant…Maybe I should have checked my will was up to date today before I came…_

"Of course," Anko continued, "I'll have to get you to learn it to the point you could practically walk around like that pretty quickly. Think you can learn it in a couple of weeks, brat?"

"Huh?" Harry blinked at that, startled. After all, shouldn't they have the entire summer to learn it around missions? Or was she trying to say that they had a lot of missions coming up. Whatever it was, Harry wasn't sure he liked that still present grin she was supporting. "…Why?" he asked tentatively, unsure if he truly wanted the answer.

"Well, you see, bearing in mind you've done two S-classed missions now, I decided to enter you in the Chunin exams."

"What!" Harry yelp, startled. The Chunin exams…If one wanted to be promoted to the next level, to become a Chunin, then one had to go through the Chunin exams. These weren't like the Genin exams (well, except for maybe Anko's test) and would be harder. Much harder. Not to mention they were done in teams of three. And unless Anko was suffering from triple vision or something, then surely she should know the problem here. "Uh….but the exams are taken in teams," Harry pointed out. "I don't know about you, but I only count one of me here, and I doubt being in a team of shadow clones will work either."

"Now, now, don't play dumb. It doesn't suit you, Midori-me," Anko rolled her eyes, clapping her hand hard on Harry's back. "I've got it covered. There are some others who are either ready to take the exams before their team mates, or their team mates have already passed. You can meet your temporary team mates soon enough as well as the Jonin leading you guys so you can get used to each other before you go to Sunagakure for the Chunin exams. Of course, I'm going to have to have a long talk about making sure that Jonin actually makes sure that you don't end up screwing yourself over or something. I can't train you if you're a mangled mush, now can I? Now however, well, we've got some work to do if you're going to get all trained up, right?" she added, a grin spreading across her face and Harry couldn't help but shiver at the look.

_I'm screwed…_

He was beginning to wonder if he would survive long enough to meet those team mates. Or at least be in one piece…

**To Be Continued…**

_**Translation list:**_

_(If not stated here, the translation may have come in a previous chapter)_

_~Sunagakure no sato: Village hidden in the sand – also known as Suna or Sunagakure. This is one of the other ninja villages, lead by the Kazekage (wind Shadow) and is situated in Wind Country. It is an ally of Konoha._

_~Fuinjutsu: Sealing jutsu. For example, the seal holding Kyuubi into Naruto is a Fuinjutsu. Likewise the Yin seal that Tsunade has is also a Fuinjutsu. The seal that Kakashi puts over the cursed mark on Sasuke in the anime/manga is a Fuinjutsu, so on and so forth. Some barrier techniques are also classed as Fuinjutsu._

_**Chosha's notes:**_

_Well, the chapter's a little bit shorter than normal, but it would have ended uncomfortably or gone too long if I had continued further. But, as you can see, in this chapter the changes to Howarts are already beginning, especially considering Harry's choices at Hogwarts are completely different (well, at least part of it is). Also, I had been planning for the Chunin exams to appear in this holiday time for almost as long as the story's been running. Lol. Anyway, I have a few questions for you guys:_

_Who should lead the temporary team in he Chunin exams? Has anyone got any preferences? Who do you think I might pick (please note the Jonin is not a Tokubetsu Jonin, but a full Jonin. But you still have time to influence my decision as to who I'll be picking!_

_Also, have a guess as to who Harry's team mates will be. Now, I already know exactly who I'm picking, but I want to see how many of you work out who will be joining Harry. Now, I'll let you know now that there is no OC in the team. The people I'm using are indeed canon characters. I'm almost curious as to what you will think of my choices. E-cookie to anyone who gets both of the characters I've picked! I will give a clue. One of them is a Chunin in the Naruto series when that person first appears. The other is not yet a Chunin by the time the series started. One last clue is one is male, and one is female._

_Now, why did I decide on Suna for the Chunin exams to take place? Well, Konoha's chunin exam will likely make an appearance, or at least come up at some point in the story, and I doubted people wanted similar things happening twice, you know? Plus I can make up a cool idea for the second exam. I could have used any other village, honestly, but since they're allies, it makes more sense. Plus I know people would love to see Gaara. Kumo was my second choice, if only because meeting B would have been amusing. I might do that in my Uchiha Potter Shorts if I can think of an interesting scene. Either that or they'll meet later._

_**I do need help thinking up a question for the first exam though! Some kind of trick question that's different from the one in canon, but also one where you need to make a choice. If I use your question, I will give a shout out to you and dedicate the chapter to you! Thanks!**_

_On another note, Thank you to everyone who gave me ideas for the basilisk name! I have a short list of names that Harry could give to the Basilisk now from these. Tell me which you prefer! Which ever gets the highest number of votes will win. _

_Sendo – meaning 'death' – Suggested by RogueNya_

_Shinome – loosely meaning eyes of death – suggested by Celebwen Telcontar and larslolxz_

_Korosumi – meaning Killing gaze – suggested by High Treason25_

_Gamayou – Toad Calamity (because it's a chicken egg hatched under a toad to get a Basilisk) – suggested by Aslan's Prodigal Girl_

_Thank you to everyone who suggested other names too. I did like them as well, but some of them were gender specific and I'm still unsure what gender the Basilisk will be yet (for all I know it's genderless), and others were good too, but I unfortunately had to shorten the list down somewhat and these names were ones that I liked the most, if only because they sound more fitting (to me anyway). But to everyone who made suggestions, I grant you an E-cookie. You can see the full list of suggestions on last chapter's reviews for anyone who's curious as to what the other suggestions were._

_I'll be setting up a poll on my profile, so please vote either there or in a review. _

_Well, with that out of the way, please review! Reviews always get me motivated!_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **__Wow, so I'm going to be part of the Chunin exams, but I have to be placed in a team first. I wonder who they'll be? We haven't got long before the Chunin exams start, so will we even be able to work together well enough?_

_**Anko:**__ Well, why don't we test that?_

_**Harry:**__ Next episode: Team Effort! The Forest of Death Redux_

_**Sarutobi:**__ Uchiha Harry, your team mates will be…_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	21. Chapter 20: Team Effort! FOD Redux

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_The Hogwarts year finished off though Harry begins to wonder if he's gotten in a little too deep with his civilian friends. Returning to Konoha now the Hogwarts year is over, Harry reunites with his brothers as well as meeting up with old friends who are now in a team under Maito Gai. Later on, Harry meets Anko for training and discovers that, in light of two completed S-classed missions, Harry should try the Chunin exams and that he will be put in a temporary team to complete them. _

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

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**Chapter Twenty**

**Team Effort! Forest of Death Redux**

Training blind was much harder than training with your eyes. For starters, you needed to reply on all of your other senses, feeling for trembles in the air and ground, or trying to sense objects close enough to him, listening for the rustle of cloth or the slicing of steel through the air, smelling for the metallic tang of weaponry or the salt of sweat, and all the while trying to avoid the urge to pull up his Hitae ate to see what was going on. Not to mention it damned well hurt. Anko seemed to take sadistic pleasure at throwing everything his way as he wobbled and tried to keep his balance without being able to see anything on an obstacle course. It felt embarrassing, in all honesty. Harry wasn't the type to brag, but he knew that he was at least somewhat graceful on his feet when he had the ability to see. When he didn't, however, he felt, not only blind, but as if all the grace had been sapped out of him, and the bruises from Anko throwing bricks at him to dodge certainly weren't helping.

It was even worse when she felt he could dodge rocks well enough ithout sight, because she started to take his kunai pouch after that and randomly toss some of his kunai at him too! Thankfully, she never aimed anywhere vital and if she did hit he had his Mystic palm jutsu to heal himself up. Still, she was throwing Kunai at him when he couldn't see.

_Sadistic crazy bitch…_

By the time Harry could actually start sensing when things were coming his way and was getting used to fighting without the use of his eyes, he was more surprised to find parts of his skin that weren't blemished by bruises than the actual bruising themselves. Still, in the long run, it would be worth it, especially if he would eventually be able to summon the basilisk at some point. The last thing he needed was to summon the magical snake, only to end up dead because he accidentally looked him in the eye. Or get stabbed or attacked when his eyes were covered up to protect himself from the lethal stare and get killed anyway.

Still, did all Anko's lessons have to hurt so much?

Thankfully, his brothers were at least somewhat merciful and didn't go around prodding and poking at him like they had last year after Anko's genin test, and were usually there with ointment and bandages if needed. Honestly, they could be heaven sent sometimes, those two. He made sure to treat them to dinner for just being so helpful, otherwise Harry was sure he would have been in far more agony than he was after these 'lessons'.

Still, he was getting better at it, though he was sure he was going to have to keep training with it (He would have anyway, since it was his idea, but he could definitely not put it off at all), because from the look on Anko's face, she was most certainly going to test him on it again. And in all honestly, he happened to like his skin its proper colour.

In what seemed like no time at all, Anko pulled him aside after training and, from the look on her face, Harry already had some idea what it was going to be about: The Chunin exams.

"Alright then, Uchiha," Anko said. "The Chunin exams'll be starting soon and I've finally finished making arrangements for your temporary team, so you better be grateful," she added, poking him. Harry just rolled his eyes. She wasn't angry, he knew, she just liked to make a nuisance of herself. He had to wonder whether she had bothered the potential team mates until the other two Genin (or their teacher) cracked and relented to her demands. He already had the mental image of two faceless genin tied to chairs as Anko loomed over them with a scary grin and an exposed kunai, cackling evilly.

Yes, that was most certainly what Anko had done, he was sure of it.

"Now, we're going to meet your team mates and the Jonin that'll temporarily be in charge of the squad while you're in Sunagakure, so make sure to play nice, ok?"

"Hey, I'm perfectly capable of playing nice-nice to people. You on the other hand…Ow!" He winced as Anko clouted him over the head.

"Behave. Or I'll definitely cut out that flippant tongue of yours one of these days," she ordered. Worryingly, Harry wasn't even sure if that was a joking threat or not and practically swallowed his tongue. After all, where Anko was concerned, anything was possible.

"So…uh…who are the other team mates?" Harry said in a would-be casual voice.

"Who knows, I'm just going to take you to meet them, you can do the introductions and stuff all on your own," Anko waved it off. "Well then, come on, no need to be late, first impressions and all that crap."

"Since when do you care about first impressions?" Harry couldn't help but raise his brow as he followed his sensei to…wherever it was he was supposed to be meeting his new team.

"Just move it, Uchiha."

Harry followed Anko through the streets, idly rubbing his still stinging shoulder from the training as it appeared to be that they were heading towards the Hokage's office. He guessed that the old man was going to be introducing the three new team mates to each other. Idly, he wondered what they would be like. There were ninja of all shapes and sizes in the village, male and female, some prodigies, and some slow learners, others just average. It was hard to imagine exactly who he could have. But as long as they weren't too arrogant or annoying he could handle it. Also, as long as they weren't Gai clones (He had seen Lee after that mentally scaring event and dammit, the boy was now dressing like Gai and had his hair cut the same way too. He really hoped that, despite all evidence to the contrary, 'Youthfulness' was not contagious) then Harry was sure that he wouldn't be too worried about dealing with the other Genin for the Chunin exams.

Finally reaching the office, Anko slammed the door open "Arriving!" she called, beaming, striding into the room even as the occupants of the room could only stare in shock, apart from the Jonin and the Hokage, the latter of whom had his head in his hand. Harry wanted to follow him.

_So much for first impressions…_Harry mentally groaned, skulking in after his sensei. As much as he could be similar to his sensei, he would rather his team mates, temporary or not, didn't think he was a total idiot. Seeing the eyes of the younger people of the room following him, he glanced over and raised a hand with a casual, "Yo."

As they were recovering from Anko's abrupt entrance, Harry quickly looked over the two who were going to now be joining him for the Chunin exams.

The first was a Kunoichi who appeared, at least from the red markings on her face, that she was from the Inuzuka clan, if the three dogs with her weren't any indication. She was fairly tall, her eyes a lot more human looking than most of the Inuzuka that Harry had seen prior to this, with brown hair that was surprisingly tame, tied back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, with her hitae ate tied around her head over her hair except for the strands of brown hair that fell over the top. She wore what looked like a beige sleeveless top with a wide collar and dark shorts with ninja sandals, and looked perhaps a little older than him (fourteen or fifteen years old, perhaps?). He also noted a tattoo on her arm that looked almost like a flower. The three dogs, all practically identical, reminded him a little of huskies (but he wasn't an expert on dogs, so he wasn't sure). They still seemed a little young, paws looking a little oversized, but he was sure they were almost full grown.

The second of the group was a young man of about sixteen or seventeen years of age, which would make him the oldest of the would-be genin (he highly doubted that the other man in the room was the last team mate – he wore a flank vest of a Jonin after all). His hair was a greyish colour and rather neat with bangs framing his face over the top of his hitae ate and, like the Inuzuka Kunoichi, it was tied back into a low ponytail too. He had dark eyes that were hidden behind circular glasses – that surprised him somewhat. After all, very few ninja wore glasses, since they got in the way and could easily slip off and break in the middle of a fight – and wore an amiable smile in response to Harry's greeting. His outfit consisted of a dark purple shirt with a white undershirt and a white obi around his waist worn at an angle, dark purple pants, blue ninja sandals, and dark purple gloves with open fingers.

The last man in the room was obviously the Jonin that would be watching over the three of them during the exams, though Harry was unsure if the ninja was the sensei of any of the two genin before them, but the man had this laid back air about him. Just by his appearance alone, Harry was sure the Jonin was a Nara. The man was fairly tall, his hair drawn back into a high ponytail that spiked out at the back, reminding Harry a little of a pineapple, and had a goatee on his chin. There were two rather large scars on the right side of his face (had someone attacked him with steel claws at some point or had he just been unlucky against a shower of kunai at some point in the past? It always made him wonder when he saw such scars on a ninja. Harry totally blamed Anko for his morbid fascination). Harry could also see the glint of earrings also. He was wearing ninja trousers tapped at the bottom with a mesh shirt, over which he wore a flank jacket of a Jonin. But for some reason he also wore a sleeveless coat that appeared to be made of some form of fur. Deer skin, maybe? He knew the Nara worked with deer sometimes. Still, it gave him a somewhat shaggy and wild appearance despite the air of laziness around him.

"Well, now that you're all here," The Hokage said, obviously recovering from Anko's abrupt entrance (the kunoichi didn't look at all ashamed about it either. Not that Harry expected her to feel any form of shame for her actions). "Now would be a good time for introductions. Harry-kun, this is Inuzuka Hana along with her nin-dogs, and Yakushi Kabuto. Hana-san, Kabuto-kun, this is Uchiha Harry, along with his sensei, Mitarashi Anko."

At the last part, Harry felt an odd prickle at his neck, as if he was being watched. Glancing over, he noted that the white haired Genin (Kabuto, did Sarutobi say?) was giving him a curious look.

_What's his problem? _Harry wondered. Maybe Kabuto had heard something about the Uchiha's prowess from the past? Or he was curious about Harry being Anko's student? Still, he cocked an eyebrow at him.

Realizing he had been caught, Kabuto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with an apologetic grin and turned back to face the Hokage. Shaking it off (maybe the guy was just weird) Harry turned his attention back to the Hokage too.

"Now, the three of you, that is to say, Hana-san, Kabuto-kun and Harry-kun will be forming a temporary team to take part in the Chunin exams in Sunagakure, since you all have certain circumstances that mean you are not with your regular teams. Due to certain arrangements, Harry-kun is unable to be placed on a team for too many months of the year due to a mission he has that takes him out of the village for long periods of time. Hana-san is ready to take the exam, but her usual teammates are not quite as prepared yet and her sensei thought it unfair to hold her back if she is capable, and Kabuto-kun got to the third exam, but hadn't been chosen for Chunin the previous time he was entered due to an unfortunate injury, which he has now recovered from. However, we have reason to believe the three of you are ready and would be capable of working well within a team, if only for the case of this exam. Nara Shikaku here will be acting as Jonin leader of your team until the exams are finished."

Shikaku raised his hand in acknowledgement, before sighing and Harry was sure he muttered something about the situation being troublesome, though he could have misheard. Somehow, he was doubtful that he had, however. The Nara were notorious for being lazy. Sasuke had accused him of having Nara blood often enough back when he had yet to activate his Sharingan.

"Of course, just because you guys have potential to work together doesn't mean that you will," Anko pointed out, a sly grin crossing her face and Harry suppressed a shiver. That grin was the one she always used just before a good beat down. Even if the two got on better now it didn't mean he was exempt from her sadistic ways. "So, I'm going to try out if you guys won't get yourselves killed in a team together, since we're a bit short on time. Shikaku can have what's left of you."

Immediately, Harry could only think back to the conversation he had had with Sarutobi a week or so ago

"_Does this mean she's not going to throw me into the forest of death for some kind of test this year?" _

"…_Not alone at least."_

Smashing his head against a wall seemed extremely appropriate right then.

That, or smashing the Hokage's face against a wall. But since doing the latter would have all the ANBU in the area on top of him before he could say 'Unfair', Harry went for the former option. His team mates, seeing Harry's reaction, had rather particular looks on their faces, as if unsure if they should be concerned for Harry's mental state, or worried about themselves since if Harry was reacting that bad as her student then it was obvious there had to be something wrong.

Finally, Harry sighed. "…Forest of Death again?" he asked, resigned.

"Bingo!" Anko said with a grin, patting his head. "Alright you maggots, get yourselves over to the Forty Fourth training ground. And hurry up, otherwise you wont know what the 'test' will be!" she sang, darting away through the window, obviously to prepare whatever training exercise it would be now.

_It can't be as bad as last year…_ Harry reminded himself as he checked his hitae ate to make sure he hadn't damaged it too much. _I mean I had to land a hit on her on my own, after tracking her through the forest. This time I have a team with me, and there's still no other Genin we'll need to compete against – well, at least until we get to Suna. Can't be that bad, right?_

…_I'm probably going to be eating my words now…aren't I…?_

"Is…she always like that?" the Inuzuka (Hana, the Hokage had called her) asked Harry tentatively.

"Pretty much," Harry nodded. "You get used to her after a while…a really long while. Or maybe it's just because I've been dealing with her on my own for a while. Anyway, we better get going. Who knows what the Sadist'll try to set up for us if we don't get there on time. See you later, Hokage," he shot to the man who gave a good luck to them as they left the room, Shikaku appeared that he was going to stay behind, or wander down whenever he felt ready.

"So…you're Uchiha Harry?" Kabuto said finally, his dark eyes fixing on him and Harry couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable by the white haired man's stare. Why did he seem so intrigued? "From the elite Uchiha Clan?"

"No, I'm from that other Uchiha Clan," Harry drawled, raising a brow at him. What was he expecting, exactly?

"I probably deserved that one," Kabuto said mildly, though Harry wasn't sure if the older Genin actually felt embarrassed at stating the obvious or not. Maybe he was still a bit paranoid after meeting Tom Riddle last year, but he thought Kabuto might be trying to gage his reaction. "I've just heard a lot about your family. I'm very sorry for your loss."

Harry twitched, but managed to keep a hold of himself, just in case he actually was doing what his paranoid mind thought he was doing. "Thanks," he said dryly.

"You're a rookie, aren't you?" Kabuto continued.

"In general, no," Harry said. "I've been a Genin for almost two years now, but I get missions outside the country sometimes so I'm not in Konoha often except over the summer months. But it's my first time for the Chunin exams."

"First time for me too," Hana nodded. "I would have taken them with my own team, but the others weren't interested particually in advancing to Chunin right now, so that's why I was asked if I wanted to join this team for the exam. You've taken them before, right?" she added to Kabuto. "What're they like?"

"Well, they can be fairly difficult," Kabuto admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Truth be told, this is my second year trying. The Chunin exams are held twice a year in different villages."

"So this is…what, your fourth time?" Harry asked

"Yes."

"Wow, you suck." The Uchiha snorted. He could only hope that having Kabuto on the team wouldn't hold them back too much. If they couldn't even get to the third exam because of him then he was going to get seriously pissed off at the guy.

"It's mainly been a bit of a run of bad luck more than anything," Kabuto waved it off. "Don't worry though, I wouldn't dream of holding any of you back. I've had team mates who've passed. I just seem to stumble at the last hurdle a bit. But it does mean I tend to know a bit about the exams. I'm getting to be something of an expert, so if you need any help at all, don't hesitate to ask."

"Hopefully you'll get through this time?" Hana said, offering him a slight smile.

"If we don't have Anko-Sensei permanently maiming us," Harry added brightly. "Ever been to the Forest of Death before, Kabuto-sempai?"

"Not yet."

"You'll wish you never had."

"Ok, I'm getting pretty worried about this sensei of yours now, Harry-kun," Hana frowned ever so slightly. "Still, it's best not to put it off, I guess…right boys?" she added to her three dogs, who barked, tails wagging in Harry could only guess was some form of agreement.

The entrance to the Forest of Death was just how Harry remembered. Its trees standing taller than any other forest in the area, the ominous aura around it was still as dark as ever. Within the forest shadows, he could see the shapes of one of the huge serpents and insects that the forest of death were home to, all sectioned off by the high fences and keep out signs that made the place seem all the more dangerous.

"We're training here?" Hana asked, eyeing the place warily.

"Anko-sensei's favourite playground," Harry sighed. "Speak of the devil," he added, seeing the Tokubetsu Jonin was waiting impatiently near the gates, hands on her hips and tapping her foot on the ground. "Well, let's get this over with…"

"I thought I said not to keep me waiting," Anko scoffed. "Get your asses over here and listen up, because I'm only saying this once. We're going to be playing a little game of capture the flag. I've set up a flag somewhere in the forest. All you have to do is find it and take it. Of course, its not as easy as it sounds, since I've got it pretty heavily protected in there. Don't expect any pit stops or breaks when you find that flag, this is different from the test I gave you to take you on as my student, Uchiha. The test will last until just before nightfall, since you do actually need time to get ready to go to Suna. I can't technically fail you, mores the pity, but it'd be in your best interest to work together. After all, you can't do the Chunin exams if you're critically injured or dead, right?"

"Is she serious?" Hana whispered.

"Yeah, pretty much," Harry sighed.

"Is she, maybe…in a bad mood?" Kabuto suggested.

"Bad?" Harry snorted. "Nope, this is her in a good mood. Things usually die painfully and loudly with bloodcurdling screams when she's in a bad mood.

"Is she sane?" Hana gaped.

"Probably not. At least, she's not when she gets like this," Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose before raising his voice so Anko could hear. "So when are we starting, Sensei?"

"On my signal," Anko said back.

"Um….don't we get a map or something?" Kabuto asked.

"Oh, did I forget to mention? The map _is_ the flag. Guess you need to find it then if you're coming out of there tonight, huh? And if you don't find it and somehow get yourselves out of there, well, I'll just turn you right round and force you back in there, kay?" She grinned at the two horrified faces and Harry's exasperated one. "After all, the objective is to capture the flag, right?"

"But that's not-!" Hana started, but Harry stopped her quickly.

"Arguing with her wont help," Harry said quickly under his breath so only his team mates would hear. "I've got it covered ok? The longer we argue the shorter time we have to get the 'flag'."

"Done whispering there, Midori-me?" Anko drawled. If you've got time to talk, you've got time to start. On my signal…." The Jonin kicked open one of the gates, forcing it to swing open. "Begin!"

As one, in a blur of colour, the three Genin and three nin-dogs had darted into the forest. Inwardly as they ran, Harry searched through his memories, drawing to mind the map he had copied from Anko with his Sharingan after his Genin test. Just as the day he had committed it to memory, the map in his mind was as clear and detailed as if the map was actually lying in front of him at that very moment.

"You guys," he told the others. "Fine a place that's clear of anything. I know the Forest pretty well, so I should be able to help somewhat."

"How many times have you been here?" Hana asked incredulously, her eyebrows raising under her hitae ate.

"Never mind that, just find a place we won't get eaten by something," Harry called back.

"There's a clearing up ahead," Kabuto, who was actually in front of them right now called back.

"I don't smell anything. Neither do the brothers either," Hana agreed.

"Then we'll stop there and make up some kind of plan," Harry noted. "Otherwise we won't be finished with this training before we're supposed to go to Suna."

Quickly, they came to a rest at the clearing floor, bouncing down the huge trees and landing. Once more, like he had the first time he had come to the forest, he felt almost tiny and insignificant – a humbling thought, but he shook it off quickly before grabbing up a stick and drawing on the ground.

"Uh…Harry-kun…" Hana said. "What are you doing…?"

"Wait a minute," Harry told her, quickly finishing the drawing. "Alright done. This is a basic map of the Forest of Death," Harry said as the other two leaned over, blinking in surprise at the drawing.

"When you said you knew the forest well, you weren't kidding, were you?" Hana blinked. "How do you know all this detail though?"

"I copied the map that Anko-sensei showed me before my Genin test," Harry admitted, leaning back to survey his work. "I had to commit it to memory pretty quickly though since she only showed me quickly and I was supposed to track her in the forest and land a hit on her."

"You had to land a hit on a Jonin as a new genin?" Hana looked startled at that and Kabuto certainly looked interesting.

"Let's just say I ended up with a concussion for my trouble," Harry shrugged, still remembering the fact he had put so much effort into copying and using the Sen'eijashu that he had forgotten his landing and smacked his head hard. Not something he particularly wanted to repeat, but he had been desperate.

"When you say 'copied'," Kabuto asked slowly. "You mean…with the Sharingan?"

"Spread that around and I'll have to _harm_ you," Harry said in a manner reminiscent of Anko, making both his team mates grimace. "I'd rather not have everyone know, thank you, and the only reason I'm even admitting it to you guys is because I'm supposed to work with you and I'd rather you not freak out if my eyes turn red or something."

"I think I've heard of that….that's the Uchiha bloodline, right?" Hana said, leaning in a little. "Can you…?"

Harry sighed. This was why he would prefer not to say anything about it. _But it's for team efficiency and so I don't have to bother with it later. Suck it up, Uchiha…_

Quickly, he let the Sharingan spin to life in his eyes for a moment before letting it fade again. "I'm not a circus for show so I'm not going to start showing you guys party tricks or something." He warned them with a half-glare.

"Still, an achievement to have it at such a young age," Kabuto noted, again giving him an oddly unreadable look despite his amiable smile.

_I really hope he wasn't some Uchiha fanatic or something back in the day. A fan-boy…?_

He shivered. He damned well hoped not. He had enough of Colin when he was trailing after him. His petrifaction had been almost a guilty relief, while his revival had been relieved, but horrified also as he started right back up again.

_No…don't go there…_

"Enough about my eyes," he said finally, waving it off, if only to not think about star stuck boys of all things and to get back onto important topics, looking at the 'map' once more. "If I know Anko, she's probably going to have put that 'flag' in the middle of the forest, near the tower, if not actually within the tower itself. I think our best bet would be to track down the flag with Anko's scent," Harry added, glancing to Hana. "Uh…not to be stereotypical or anything, but Inuzuka's are pretty good at the tracking thing after all. Think your dogs would be able to pick up the scent?

"Don't worry, you're right. Even though I want to become a trainer and medic for the nin-dogs, we've done a lot of tracking too. It's standard Inuzuka stuff. But it'll be difficult to pick up her scent unless you have something of hers that might be able to save us some time?"

"Well, I was training with her before this, so…" Harry thought it over for a moment, before pulling out a kunai and flipping it so he was holding it carefully by the blade, offering the hilt out. "Sensei was threw this at me when she thought I could blind-dodge rocks enough. Think that would have enough of a scent?"

"Well, you said it was this morning, right?" Hana said as her dogs approached, sniffing at the Kunai. "The scene'll probably be faint, but their noses are keen, so they should…yes, they can pick it up," she added when the dogs immediately started sniffing the area.

"By the way, Kabuto, what can you do?" Harry asked while the dogs searched for Anko's scent. After all 'Yakushi' didn't sound like a Konoha ninja clan name. Then again, he could have been from a civilian family. But not being from a clan he recognised made Kabuto a variable that he really needed to get to know sooner rather than later if they were going to the Chunin exams together.

"Well, I'm fairly proficient at healing jutsu," Kabuto said. "My adoptive father was Chief of the Medics. I'm fairly good at information gathering with my ninja info cards…"

"Ninja…what now?"

"Ninja info cards," Kabuto repeated. "If I inject a little chakra into a special set of cards I have I can get their ranking, amount of missions they have done, special abilities…I'll show you during the Chunin exams though, since I don't think that that would be helpful right now. Heh heh…" he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well, since its Anko-sensei's test, having a healer'll definitely be good. I can use Shousen a little for surface healing but…"

"I know that one, amongst others," Kabuto nodded. "I'll help you get that perfected on the way to Suna once we've finished this training."

"Cool," Harry brightened at that. Honestly, most medics were tight lipped about their healing jutsu unless you specifically wanted to become a medic yourself. He had been lucky enough to get the Shousen scroll last year, but he just hadn't had to opportunity to test out its offensive capabilities in the way he wanted to. He was glad he hadn't decided to test it out on the Basilisk – he would have missed out on the would-be summon seal. "I'll hold you to that."

Maybe Kabuto wasn't as bad as he thought, as long as he could get passed that apparent interest in the Uchiha.

"Got it," Hana said, jumping up when the dogs barked, tails wagging.

"Alright, lead the way, Hana," Harry said with a nod. "But watch out for traps, ok? Anko loves to use them, being the sadist she is."

"I'd question it. I would," Hana said dryly. "But after seeing her…"

"She's wacko."

"Well…yes. No offence."

"None taken," Harry said dryly before the three of them darted off after the dogs before the brothers left them all behind.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry was distinctly glad that he was in a team, as it made tracking things down so much easier, but at the same time it made things awkward, since he also had to make sure that the others wouldn't accidentally walk into any traps either. Still, having an Inuzuka on the team was good as well, since Harry got at least a little warning when the nin-dogs came running out of one of the undergrowths they had been investigating with one of the Fire Country Tigers chasing after them.

Unfortunately, it also meant it then noticed _them_.

"Not again…Run!" Harry groaned before all three of them had to dart off to save their skins from the huge creature now running after them.

"W-what the hell is that!" Hana screeched, practically clutching her nin-dogs to her as they ran at full speed away from the snarling stalker.

"Fire country tiger!" Harry managed to gasp out, despite his own panic. "They're native here and obviously hungry!"

"I don't want to be dinner!" Hana wailed, the nin-dogs wining in her grip.

"It's gaining on us!" Kabuto cried.

"Then run faster dammit!"

Why was it that ever time he came in this damned forest he always got accosted by a tiger? Maybe it was the one he set on fire last year? But surely a wild animal couldn't hold a grudge that long…right? However, he didn't have much time to mull over it further as they ran at full speed through the undergrowth, ignoring the cuts and grazes as plant like tore passed them in their mad dash until they reached what looked like the edge of a cliff overlooking the river that flowed through the forest.

"Jump!"

Quickly, the three Genin launched themselves off the cliff edge. If it hadn't been for chakra they would have missed the large branch that was almost out of reach, but they managed to stick to it with chakra to their hands and tried to pull themselves up (Kabuto had to help Hanna somewhat, since she had three dogs to help up too). The Tiger's hunger (or grudge, Harry couldn't tell which) was obviously strong as it followed them relentlessly, leaping after them. It would have made it too, except-

Harry twisted around so he was only hanging on with one hand and focused on making the seals one handed, throwing his hand out. "Sen'eijashu!" he hissed as three snakes shot from his sleeve and crashed straight into the tiger's face, sending it flipping backwards, spiralling out of its momentum and missing the Genin and the branch, instead the snakes had forced it to be flung down into the river instead.

"Take that, you damned tiger!" Harry hissed in parseltongue as he drew the shadow snakes back into his sleeve once more. He was amused to watch the bedraggled tiger managing to pull itself out of the river far below, growling in miserable displeasure as it stalked back into the thickets once more. Maybe it felt the trouble wasn't worth it. Shrugging, he turned his attention back to climbing up onto the branch as Hana and Kabuto pulled him up.

"What was that jutsu?" Hana asked once Harry had been pulled up to safety and they had all got their breaths back.

"Sen'eijashu," Harry said, brushing his sweaty hair from out of his face with a hand. "Anko-sensei taught me."

"Did you hiss?" Kabuto asked, eyeing Harry calculatingly.

"Must have picked it up from Anko," Harry lied easily. He already told them about his eyes, why should he tell them about his magic and parseltongue too? If it was really needed, he'd tell them, but honestly, it wasn't just yet. And he really didn't like that look in Kabuto's eye anyway.

"It sounded like you were talking in a weird language," Kabuto insisted.

"Don't be stupid, I'm an Uchiha. We have Doujutsu, not verbal bloodlines," Harry waved it off. "I think the adrenaline must have got to your brain."

However, he wasn't sure that he had Kabuto convinced. "…Perhaps."

"Anyway, that tiger threw us right off target," Harry grumbled, turning the conversation onto more important matters and away from matters that would really take far too long to explain. "Will you be able to pick up the trail again?"

"I think so," Hana nodded. "Once the boys have calmed down," she added, petting the poor shaken pups.

"Let me heal the two of you while they recover then," Kabuto offered, running through some hand seals before his hands glowed with chakra as he started on Hana's minor wounds first from their little escapade. "After all, we wouldn't want to actually get into any other kinds of fights even with minor wounds if it'll slow us down."

Harry nodded, starting on healing his own absently with his own healing jutsu. "Well, the good news is I recognise this place from my own test," Harry said as he had a quick look around. "I rested here, well, on ground level, what I was making some plans in tracking Anko-sensei. We're a little over half of the forest radius. If we follow the river, it leads to the centre of the forest, so if we can't pick up the scent here, we can move to the middle where the tower is and search for it there. I mean, it's more likely to be in the middle of the forest than near to the edge and the nin-dogs seemed to be heading that way…"

"Have you led a Genin group before?" Hana asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Harry blinked, surprised from his work for a moment as he looked over at the Inuzuka. "No. First time in a team, you know? Though I've directed a few civilians around a few times on missions." Of course, those were normally at Hogwarts. Hermione and Ron were just like having teammates at times, even if he felt he mad maybe got a little too close to them lately.

"Maybe it's an Uchiha thing to naturally slip in as a leader," Kabuto said simply as he helped finish off healing Harry.

"Hey, I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes or anything," Harry said quickly, almost feeling embarrassed. Had he seriously been ordering them around? He hadn't meant to, but he guessed he was just so used to working on his own, with civilians or with summons (even regular snakes at times) that he just fell into that same mindset so easily. "If I'm doing something wrong then-"

"No, its fine, Harry-kun," Hana shook her head. "I was just a little surprised. For someone who's not been in a team before you seem to know what you're doing."

"Like I said, I just know what Anko-sensei's like," Harry snorted, looking away. "I mean, I know you guys are older and have been Genin longer than I have, so if I'm getting 'ideas above my station' or whatever…"

"We'll let you know if you suggest something stupid," Hana grinned. "Come on 'Taichou', don't get moody now."

"Taichou?" Harry raised his brow.

"Yup. Harry-taichou has a good ring to it, right, Kabuto?" The Inuzuka teased.

The healer smirked slightly at that, joining the teasing with a sly look. "Oh yes. Harry-taichou indeed."

"Oooh, or what about Taichou-chan?" Hana added, covering her snigger behind a hand.

"Carry on like that and I'll go get that Tiger back," Harry grumbled. Great, as if he didn't have enough with Anko teasing him all the time, now he had these two as well. He seriously hoped being called 'captain' wouldn't stick. Still, it amused the other two genin anyway. It could have been worse, he guessed. They could have been eaten by a huge cat already. "Have the dogs recovered?"

He was answered by three barks.

"Looks like it," Hana nodded as she stood up. "Come on then, Taichou-chan, we should hurry up and find that flag so we can get out of here."

"I just said stop calling me Taichou. And don't call me chan either," Harry growled as they quickly leapt off after the three nin-dogs once more.

"Of course, Taichou-chan."

"You too, Kabuto! Carry on calling me that and I'll show you why I can put up with Anko!"

"Hai, Taichou-chan!"

"Enough!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Thankfully, Harry's estimations hadn't been too far off. As they could see the top of the tower through the trees, the dogs had once more found Anko's scent again and lead them further inwards, past the place he and Anko had fought for Harry's placement as a Genin. He could still see the faint marks from their clashes too, he realised nostalgically. Eventually, they continued onwards and actually towards the tower itself. Honestly, Harry wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. It was good that they would be free from mutant sized bugs and tigers (the snakes didn't bother them at all, since they seemed to remember Harry at least and some of the more cheerful ones had even said hello as they passed) that were trying to eat them, but at the same time, he had no idea what kind of traps would be guarding the 'flag' at the end.

Knowing Anko, it would be at least very painful.

Coming to a stop just before the clearing that the tower itself was in, they pressed their backs against the trees and glanced over at the area. Harry activated the Sharingan – even though he was training to be able to work without it, there was no point crippling himself when it was useful, he reasoned – and scanned the area for any sign of chakra that would indicate some form of seal trap (Just because Anko had said she wasn't skilled in them didn't mean she didn't know any after all), but apart from the faint chakra of a native Forest of Death animal and his teammates, of course, Harry couldn't see any sign of chakra-formed traps or any breakages in the undergrowth of any normal kinds of traps. If there were any, they were well hidden to escape even the Sharingan's gaze.

"My Sharingan's not picking up anything." Harry noted, glancing to Hana. "Any scents?"

"Other than the ones we've been tracking to get here, no," Hana said after sniffing at the air for a moment, exchanging looks with her dogs. "That doesn't mean that she didn't set anything up for us before she left though…" she added with a frown.

"It would seem that maybe she might want to lull us into a false sense of security before we get inside," Kabuto pointed out.

Harry snorted. "I seriously wouldn't put that passed her." He admitted. "So we best be on our guard when we go in unless we want to be in a world of pain."

"Right, Taichou."

Harry felt his eyebrow twitch at that. It would seem they weren't going to drop that any time soon. However, he shook it off. He could protest later when there was less of a chance of getting killed slowly and painfully because of his sadistic sensei.

"Let's just get this out of the way already," Harry sighed.

Carefully, with quick movements, the three Genin darted over to the tower, pressing their backs against the wall either side of the door – Harry and Kabuto on one side, Hana and the dogs on the other, listening intently for any sound, or any sign of traps. Kabuto even checking through the windows, being the tallest of the three of them, but even then, Kabuto had to jump and pull himself up by his fingertips to see inside, since the ledge was so small.

"I don't see anyone," Kabuto noted. "But I think I might see the flag."

Hana tried the door, only to find it locked and scowled. "Locked."

Kabuto quickly tried the window, only to drop back down, shaking his head, "Same with the windows," Kabuto frowned. "If we broke them it might just set off something inside too.

"Knowing Anko-sensei, she probably booby-trapped the doors," Harry said thoughtfully. "After all, apart from the most eccentric of ninja, most people still use doors. Where Anko's concerned, 'doors are evil', I think."

"How can a door be evil?" Kabuto raised his brow, though he sounded almost amused at the very idea.

"Hell if I know, but you've seen Sensei. Maybe she got stuck in tons of ambushes in doorways," Harry shrugged. That was the most logical thing to him without thinking of fake doors or ghosts walking through them as there were at Hogwarts. Then again, as much as he liked his sensei, there was still the fact that he could never call her rational without lying through his teeth. "Either that or it's just because, you know, she's insane."

"How do you keep your sanity with her?" Hana asked sympathetically.

"What sanity?" Harry snorted. "Lend me your shoulders, Kabuto; I'm going to see if I can get that window unlocked." He would rather not be concentrating on keeping his chakra flowing to his feet while using a spell. He could, of course, but it was more effort.

"Don't take too long," Kaabuto said, letting Harry stand on his shoulder.

"Don't be a wuss, I'm not that heavy," Harry scoffed, managing to keep his balance once Kabuto stood once more. "Now stand still," he added as he inspected the window a moment before pulling out his wand when he was sure the others weren't watching and murmured a quiet, "Alohamora". There was a click and a moment later he pushed the window open, preparing to roll off Kabuto's back if any trap had been set there. Thankfully though, there was none. Tucking his wand away, he quickly moved to the windowsill, crouching there so he could get a proper look around with his Sharingan.

The tower seemed to have a large entrance hall and what looked like some kind of poem or something written on the wall – one of the Hokage's maxims? Only a word was missing. Perhaps part of the test that was used in the second exam of the Konoha Chunin exams? He wasn't overly certain. There appeared to be stairs going up to what Harry could only guess was temporary bedrooms for those who were waiting for others to finish the test – either that or there were bathrooms. There was also an archway into what looked like another room with a currently-blank, electrical announcement board and some form of statue in a hand seal, though he couldn't quite tell what seal it was since the archway was covering it. However, in the middle of that room he could indeed see what looked to be an unfurled scroll on a staff in the centre, the green, browns and blues of the picture on it obviously being the map that they were looking for.

"Cost looks clear," Harry said after a moment before jumping down, moving out of the way so the others could jump in, taking a look at the door, only to snort. As he expected, it was booby-trapped with enough exploding tags that if they had opened the door it would have blown the doors and them sky high. At times, Harry had to wonder if the woman had any kind of sense of restraint. "Keep your eyes peeled though. Just because I don't see any chakra or trip wires doesn't mean there isn't a trap."

"Hai, Taichou."

"Will you stop it already?" Harry growled, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration before shoving his thoughts on his growing headache aside as they began to make their way through the tower to the main room, tense, just in case there was indeed someone waiting for them at the end.

The room was surprisingly bigger than Harry had expected it to be. The middle of the room appeared to be a kind of combat area, probably to use for training purposes, or maybe even for preliminaries if too many passed the second exam when it was held in Konoha and the Forest of Death was used. The great statue near the far wall was two huge arms the size of houses, carved as if they were wearing fishnet sleeves, positioned into the ram seal. Underneath the statue seemed to be an announcement platform, while around the edges of the walls were platforms with stairs leading up to them, probably so that people could watch any of the fights that might take place below. Currently, the 'flag' was in the centre of the arena, looking extremely unprotected.

"This is weird…" Harry murmured. "When you play capture the flag, isn't the flag normally protected by someone or by traps or something so the other team doesn't get it?"

"Normally," Kabuto agreed, looking around, dark eyes set into a frown behind his glasses.

"We should hurry then, because I seriously don't want to know what'll happen if we stick around for too long," Harry shuddered.

Nodding, Kabuto quickly headed over and pulled the flag from the ground, only to find there was a string attached to the flag, travelling under the ground that pulled up with it and Harry blenched. Of course he didn't see the wire. Somehow, Anko had rigged it under the ground. An earth jutsu? But….what would that string lead to…?

"Uh….guys…?" Hana said suddenly, coming closer to them as the finally, carefully approached the flag. "Is it just me….or can either of you hear growling?"

The Uchiha and Yakushi paused. "Growling?" they echoed, looking at each other before a louder growling did indeed meet there ears and they all froze, quickly spinning so they were back to back, kunai in hand as, to their horror, they found a tiger cage that had been quite will hidden behind the arms of the statue. Coming out of the cage was one of the huge Forest of Death tigers. There was also another one coming from behind them, near the entrance that was now blocking their way out as they growled, stalking around the three Genin.

Harry almost groaned.

_Tigers….Why was it always tigers? Why can't it be a snake, at least I could reason with that!_

"Dammit…" Harry hissed. "Looks like we're going to have to fight them…"

However, even as he said it, he winced. Last time he attacked one of those huge tigers, he ended up only singing its fur and pissing it off more. But maybe it was just immune to flames or Harry hadn't put in enough of an effort, he didn't know. However, before he could do or say anything else, the tigers attacked and the three of them had to scatter before they ended up lunch. Inwardly, Harry couldn't help but try out every curse word he knew and vowed to swap all of Anko's dango for mud-balls for the rest of the year for this!

Dodging to the side to send the tiger chasing after him crashing headlong into the wall, Harry quickly jumped up and stuck his hands to the under side of the viewing platforms, before swinging himself up to flip over the bars. As much as Harry could admittedly be good at Taijutsu, he wasn't sure how well he would do against almost inch long fangs and claws at close range just yet. But maybe if he could stay back and hit the things with longer ranged ninjutsu or spells then maybe it might help the others who were pretty much limited to more close ranged attacks (being a medical ninja and an Inuzuka.

Speaking of his team mates, his sharingan soon picked up that they were currently having problems even getting close to the tiger and quickly he pulled out his wand.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, sending a beam of light shooting from his wand and catching the tiger that was just about to pounce onto Hana, who was crouched down, kunai in hand and grim determination on her face, protecting one of her dogs that had got injured, sending it crashing back, frozen, if only temporarily. Quickly, Harry jumped from his position. "Get it before it gets back up!" Harry yelled.

Kabuto quickly changed the direction he had been dodging the tiger from, running through hand seals and just as the creature was finally starting to get its legs back had struck with the Mystic Palm, sending it crashing down once more with blood coming from its mouth.

"Your dog-?" Harry started.

"He'll be fine, just dazed," The Inuzuka said just as the dog, accompanied by its brothers began to get back to its feet shakily, whimpering slightly. However, she caught sight of some movement far behind them and her eyes widened "Guys, the other one!"

"I'll try and pin it down," Harry said. "You guys see if you can subdue it," he added as he darted to the side somewhat as he came after the others again, casing them all to scatter once more, but this time with better knowledge of what they needed to do. Harry darted towards the arm statues and ran up them to avoid the Tiger, back flipping off it as he formed familiar hand signs.

"Sen'eijashu!" He shot snakes from his sleeve, quickly managing to get then to wrap around the neck of the tiger as it was about to aim for his team mates once more, the coils wrenching it back from its attack like a thick scaly collar and lead. The creature thrashed and roared, pulling and tugging to get away and the only reason he didn't find himself flung sky high was the fat he managed to suction himself to the arena surface with his chakra, but even then, he was surprised his arms hadn't been torn from their sockets. He bit his lip hard to avoid yelling in pain, instead only managing a hiss through his teeth.

Thankfully, with its distraction with Harry, Kabuto had shot over and with a few good strikes of his Mystic palm had cut through the muscles of the creature's back leg, impending it further. The Tiger not fully able to thrash around now as much as it was, even though it had soon decided to slash at the shadow snakes and was causing them to poof away at a quick rate, obviously not about to give in.

"Haimaru! Now!" Thankfully, Hana and the dogs had prepared themselves and darted forwards so fast in a roll-like movement that Harry couldn't even fully see properly as the blurred movements looked practically like a buzz-saw. "Gatenga!"

The attack struck the Tiger, attacking with multiple beast-like attacks that Harry had to release his sen'eijashu since the attack would have got that as well, not to mention he had to cover his eyes just in case from the amount of force coming from it. Moments later, they came out of their spin, human and dogs skidding to a stop on their feet, while the tiger was collapsed on the ground. Harry released a shaky sigh. It looked like it wasn't going to be getting up again.

_Note to self….while fire ninjutsu doesn't really do much else than piss it off, more physical attacks seem to work best. Damn, the fact I even have to make a note to myself means that I meet Forest of Death Tigers far too often…Crazy sensei…_

"Lets not need to do that again," He sighed, relieved as he rubbed his poor abused arms.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Hana sighed shakily, rubbing her wrist over her face to remove sweat from her eyes. "I feel kind of bad though that we had to hurt them so badly…"

"Would you rather we got eaten?" Harry raised a brow.

"Well…no…" she admitted sheepishly.

"We can just rant at Anko-sensei later," Harry waved it off, moving to heal his shoulder a little bit as he was sure his struggle with the tiger had at least torn a ligament or two. Say what you wanted about the Forest of Death, but the tigers that lived there were freakishly strong.

"Well, at least we have the 'Flag' now," Kabuto pointed out brightly, approaching them with the now none-booby-trapped map-flag. "Well, lets get everyone healed up again before we head back. We seem to be having some pretty rotten luck with the tigers here, don't you think?"

"Don't remind me," Harry groaned.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Thankfully, other than being dirty and a little tired, the trio made their way out of the forest as the sky was turning a pinkish-orange as the sun began to set at the horizon. Thankfully, they hadn't had any more run-ins with super sized animals and, after having spent the morning training blind and the afternoon busy getting the damned flag from the Forest of Death, Harry was quite happy to say he would rather spend the rest of the night in a nice comfy bed before cursing his teacher with enough non-lethal jinxes to make his displeasure known. Either that or summon snakes to give her a rude awakening. He couldn't really think much on it because he was bushed, to put it simply. His teammates didn't look that much better either. Hana had been carrying the three dogs at alternate points as the poor huskies seemed in an even worse state of tiredness than himself, while Kabuto had been keeping the flag for safe keeping the entire way.

As they dragged themselves out of the gate at long last (and Harry resisted the urge not to kiss the ground in relief only because he had other people who would be watching and Uchiha's didn't grovel at the ground in public. Or in ever, unfortunately) they were immediately accosted by Anko, who hoped down from goodness knew where with her grin firmly in place.

"So, how'd it go?"

The three Genin just glared at her for a long moment.

"I take it you did have fun then," she sniggered. "You liked the tigers?"

"You're damned screwed up, sensei," Harry hissed venomously, barely resisting the urge to flip her the bird. "Next time _you_ can be cat food!" before turning and stalking off, followed by his grumbling teammates.

"Did you even get the map?" she shouted after them, causing the trio to pause and share a look before they nodded to each other.

Kabuto passed the rolled up map/flag to Hana, who passed it to Harry, who threw the thing hard at Anko so that it bounced off her head, not to mention tossed her head back a little as well.

"Does that answer your question, Crazy-ass Sensei!"

"…Ow…"

"You should be so glad we've got to start off to Suna tomorrow," Harry growled. "Or I'd really have to make you watch your back."

Anko just chuckled at that. "Don't you die in those exams then, boy, otherwise I won't have any fun seeing what you could come up with."

"Screw you, Sensei," Harry shot back with a grin, but his mood had lifted a little anyway. That was a 'good luck and I believe in you' in Anko-nese if he had ever heard it. After all, what was the teacher-student relationship of Anko and Harry if not for their banters?

He heard her chuckle from somewhere behind and poof away as he rolled his eyes and put his arms over his new teammates' shoulders. "Well then, shall we get going then? I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather at least get a bath, some good food and sleep before we have to go desert trekking."

"Want to eat out before we go back to our homes then, Taichou-chan? Kabuto?" Hana asked.

"Sure," Harry grinned, before prodding Kabuto. "You're paying."

"Wha-? Why am I paying?"

"You're the oldest. And because I say so."

"Taichou!" Kabuto protested as Harry just laughed at him. Well, if the two of them were going to keep calling him that of all things, he might as well make the most of it.

**To Be Continued…**

****

_**Translation List:**_

_(If not stated here, the translation may have come in a previous chapter)_

_Taichou – means 'captain'. Of course, it is merely a teasing nickname for Harry here because of him showing his 'leadership' skills, rather than Harry actually having a rank._

_Shousen – Part of the Shousen Jutsu name which is 'Mystic Palm jutsu' A healing technique which can also be used offensively, cutting the muscles under the skin. One can even perform surgery with the jutsu without needing to cut a person open._

_Gatenga – 'Fang Spinning Fang' – one of the Inuzuka Taijutsu abilities where Inuzuka and dog partner(s) spin rapidly like a buzz-saw and deliver beastial damage to the opponent. Currently the only jutsu seen used by Hana and the Haimaru brothers (her nin-dogs) in the Naruto Manga_

_**Chosha's Notes:**_

_And another chapter done! I didn't think it appropriate for Harry to meet his new teammates then immediately head to Suna for the exams, as none of them would know how the others worked, so I decided to give them this training exercise. I know, mean of me to do so. Poor Harry's going to get a phobia of tigers, eventually if I keep giving him all these bad encounters._

_Now, in regards to Harry's temporary teammates. In every fanfic, one or more of the teammates a Harry-raised-in-Konoha ends up being an OC of some kind, but I thought 'why make up the genin if there are some readily available'. Just because Hana, for example, is a Chunin in the series doesn't mean she wasn't a Genin at some point. At this point in time, Uchiha Potter is about a year before the events of Naruto (if UP was canon) even began (and I'm estimating their chunin exams would be about before fifth year). And I don't think it actually says when Hana became a Chunin. Looking at Narutopedia it gives her age then to be 18, but that's the only age given. I'm assuming this age to be her during Shippuden, which would make her about 13 or 14 right now, about the age one would take Chunin exams (unless a prodigy). So, that's my reasoning for using Hana._

_Now, why did I pick Kabuto? Well, I thought it might make things interesting. We all know he's Orochimaru's spy, but none of the others do and Kabuto's competent enough of a spy not to get caught despite how many times he's taken the exams. Though at the moment, it could have been coincidence that Kabuto ended up on Harry's temporary team, or he could have rigged it so he could see Harry's ability. After all, I'm certain that since there are two Uchiha other than Itachi now that Orochimaru would want to look into both. Not to mention Kabuto himself stated he's taken several exams already, so no matter how you look at it, Kabuto would have gone to these exams one way or another. I also thought it might make for some interest when Kabuto's true colours shine through, especially since we've already glimpse at Harry's distain for traitors. _

_As for why I chose Shikaku…No reason really. I just thought he might be the simplest to write as since I doubt Anko would lead a team. She's a Tokubetsu Jonin after all, and the only reason Harry even ended up with her was because of his unique talents. If he hadn't got Parseltongue he could have been with anyone really. So I needed a full Jonin to act as the leader of the temp-team. I suppose I could have picked Kakashi, but I couldn't be bothered to do a bell test with him as he would likely have done (we've done it to death on fanfiction!) but I kinda have plans for him, therefore it would have been a bit odd. Don't worry Kakashi fans, he will be making more of an appearance than his minor cameo last chapter._

_You guys still have a chance to help me with my first exam question for the Chunin exams too instead of the one Ibiki used (it'll be in Suna after all) so if you would like to see your question up there, you still have time to send it to me._

_The poll for the Basilisk's name is also still ongoing, so if you haven't voted, go to my profile after reviewing and post your vote too. ^_^_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **The Chunin exams are about to begin! Suna's certainly interesting if nothing else…And…hey, who's that guy there? Is he…like Naruto? Next episode: Journey to the Desert of Winds. You won't want to miss it!_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	22. Chapter 21: Journey to the Desert

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_After training somewhat to avoid having to use his eyes all the time in the wake of his last year at Hogwarts, Harry is brought to the Hokage, where he meets his new teammates for the Chunin exams: Inuzuka Hana and Yakushi Kabuto. However, Anko decided to give them a training exercise to see how they would do in a group, making the three go into the Forest of Death to retrieve a 'flag'. However, the test ends up with them getting the flag after having to fend of giant tigers that Anko had left in with the flag. With the training done, Harry, Hana and Kabuto must now prepare for their biggest test – the Chunin exams themselves._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Twenty One**

**Journey to the Desert of Winds**

Harry had never been to Sunagakure no Sato. Likewise he hadn't been to Wind Country either, where the allied village was located. Now that he considered it, Harry hadn't been very far in the Elemental countries at all except for Fire country, where the majority of his missions had been and Swamp country, where he and Anko had gone on their first C-classed mission together. Apart from Diagon Alley, Kings Cross Station and Hogwarts itself, the Uchiha realised that he was remarkably sheltered in places he had been.

All in all, after he had said his goodbyes to his brothers (They'd be able to come cheer him on in the Chunin exams if he got all the way through. That was the only reason they didn't pin him down and refuse to let him go, he was sure), got what he needed to take with him and made his way to Konoha gates where their team and a few other teams of people from Konoha who would be attempting the Chunin exams as well had all gone to meet, Harry felt quite ready for the new adventure to this land he had only seen on maps prior to this. Hana and the Haimaru trio hovered near the gates, glancing at the few other teams that were also waiting to leave, or had met up with their teams and were already leaving, while Kabuto was shuffling what looked like a deck of cards with kanji on the back, all of which were in the orange colour that Naruto seemed to love. Both looked up as Harry approached.

"Yo," he said, raising a hand in greeting before stuffing them in his pockets. "Any sign on Shikaku-san yet?"

"Not just yet," Hana admitted. "But I think he said something about getting passes or something."

"Well, I guess unless we want to spend the entire time with Suna's _Gomon/Jinmon Butai_ trying to explain how we're not trespassing that we'll need them," the Uchiha shrugged, though he didn't want to test that theory at all. Just because Konoha and Suna had a vague alliance of some kind, that didn't mean that Suna would just let ninja walk unchecked willy nilly through their village whenever they felt like it. Still, he sighed, scuffing his sandal on the floor in boredom while he was waiting for their temporary sensei before those flashes of orange caught his eye again. "Somehow I don't think you'll be able to play poker with the other ninja during the exams, Kabuto."

"Poker?" Kabuto blinked. "Ah, no, these aren't playing cards." He held up a fan of them, showing the blazing orange on one side and blank whiteness on the other. "These are the Ninja Info Cards I told you about. I thought they might be useful for the exams."

"The ones you said you can get data on people by putting chakra into them?" Harry asked with a frown.

_But there's nothing on them…do they just print stuff on once the chakra gets to them, or is the information just always there, but invisible?_

"Indeed they are," Kabuto nodded. "The information is already burned into the cards with my chakra. I had a look at the details I can find on who will be joining the exam this year, or at least, as much as I could find, and I also have details of the past few times I've been apart of the exam too. I even have information on you guys too."

"Let's see them then," Hana said, coming over to them and crossing her arms over her chest sceptically.

"Who do you want information on?" Kabuto shrugged, shuffling them back into their deck once more in a neat pile in his palm.

"Hm…how about…Taichou-chan?" Hana suggested, indicating Harry, who sighed at the fact the new nickname was obviously not going anywhere. Still, a part of him was interested in what the card would say, while at the same time, he tried not to shiver at the thought of exactly what the cards might actually show. Before he could voice any protest though, Kabuto had nodded.

"Uchiha Harry. Alright then," he placed down a card on the floor, blank side up and placed his finger in the middle, forming a half ram seal as he concentrated. The card began to spin on the ground before there was a poof of smoke and, to Harry's surprise, the card was no longer blank on the once pure white side. In fact, he found himself looking at a tiny picture of himself as he had on his ninja licence, along with what looked like various stats.

"Uchiha Harry, twelve, but will become thirteen in a few weeks and graduated the academy at age ten. Mission experience: Not much here, surprisingly. It's probably minimum requirement. Seven D ranks, a C turned B rank and two S ranked – S ranked?" Kabuto blinked, adjusting his glasses as he brought the card to him, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "_S-ranked!"_ He spluttered in realisation that his eyes obviously weren't failing him._ "_Wow, that's pretty damned impressive to have two S ranked anyway but as a Genin? Most Chuunin don't even get S ranked missions! And no serious injuries either? How's that even possible!"

"Woah, seriously?" Hana gaped at Harry. "That's amazing, Taichou-chan!"

Harry just looked away, almost glad that his magical traits had yet to be shown on that card. He wasn't sure he wanted everyone to know about them just yet. He hadn't even told his ninja friends. So far, only his brothers, Anko and the Hokage knew about his other heritage, as far as he was aware.

"Not in a squad due to being on two long term solo missions outside of the country, but 'Squad' leader is Mitarashi Anko," Kabuto continued, though obviously still somewhat shaken by the two S-classes. "Graduated early with fairly high scores and was top of his year group before the two year early graduation. Focuses on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu mostly – hey!" Kabuto yelped as Harry took the card.

"I hope you don't go flashing these things of to just anyone who asks," Harry frowned. "Its creepy enough you even know all this kind of information like a stalker, but I'd rather not have everyone know all that stuff about me too."

"Of course I don't show them to everyone," Kabuto said quickly, eager not to get on the bad side of the Genin with two S-classed missions under his belt, Harry was sure. "I'll wipe it now so the details aren't revealed to anyone else."

Harry honestly would have preferred to burn the card and get rid of it, especially after everything with the diary gathering information on him and using his friends against him. However, he sighed. Against his better judgement, he handed the card back to Kabuto who, true to his word, did indeed wipe the card blank once more and shuffle the cards again, tucking them away.

"If anyone else gets that information," Harry threatened coldly, "I'm making sure I set all the poisonous snakes I can on you."

Kabuto raised his hands in surrender at Harry's expression. "Hai hai, I'll take your word for it," he laughed sheepishly, "Especially with Anko-san as your sensei."

"Hn," Harry snorted at that, crossing his arms.

"Yare, yare, not causing trouble already, are you? Jeez…"

"Hello to you too, Shikaku-sensei," Harry said dryly as he turned away from Kabuto to look at their temporary sensei, who had finally arrived, looking more like he would rather be doing something else. Harry, however, just guessed that was a normal Nara expression and took little notice of it after that.

"Here," Shikaku said, tossing them all something that Harry snatched out of the air on instinct and blinked at it. It looked like a kind of card. Flipping it over he noticed it was in fact a pass for the Chunin exams. "Don't loose them or it'll be really troublesome having to explain why you're even in Suna, then I'd have to explain to the Hokage why you didn't even take the exams."

Harry rolled his eyes, but tucked the pass into his hip pouch. "Got it."

"Is there anything else we need to know at all?" Hana asked.

"Not yet. We'll get to Suna first," Shikaku said. "Just make sure you all behave when we get there. After all, we'll be guests in Suna and Suna is not Konoha. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Alright then, let's go. It'll take us at least a day to get there if we don't stop for rests, so let's get to it." With that, Shikaku lead the team through the gate. Once they were clear of it he leapt off into the trees, setting a quick pace that the Genin would be able to follow. With a quick nod to each other, the newly formed team darted after the Nara.

As they were travelling, Harry paid half attention on where he was going while he considered Wind country and Sunagakure itself. He, after all, only had knowledge on what they had been taught in the academy itself other than his own imagination. It made him both excited as to what was to come, but at the same time somewhat apprehensive. It would be the first time he would meet ninja from other villages that wasn't necessarily going to end up like the mission to Swamp, so he wasn't really sure what he was going to expect. After all, the only thing he knew about Suna was that it was in the middle of a desert. Somehow he was sure that Suna had a bit more to it than that. After all, it was a hidden village.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The journey to Sunagakure had been going quite well. Kabuto was even starting to teach him aspects to the Chakra no Mesu, an aspect of healing jutsu that could be used offensively that Harry had read about during the time he had been learning the Shousen jutsu, even if he hadn't been able to look into it much before due to lack of things to target that wouldn't be completely immoral. He was starting to get the idea of the basics, though once again, it was difficult to actually see how well he could do it without having something have its internals cut up. Still, he made a silent vow that if during the exams Kabuto used it, he would copy it. He felt a little guilty he would essentially be stealing a jutsu, but Kabuto had that information card on him and he still had no idea how he got that information. Harry felt it was justified that he get a Jutsu from him in return. Maybe he's just spent too much time around Anko, who could be quite vindictive herself.

Things had been going fine with this until they actually reached the desert in Wind Country and started travelling through it. It was only then that he realised just how inappropriately dressed he really was. Not that his clothes were sweltering – he came from fire country after all and there'd never even been a speck of snow there before – but they did seem to be a little too warm. They were fairly dark blues and greys in colour, which wasn't really helping with the sun's heat, but he could deal with that. After all, it wasn't like he was wearing pure black or something. No, it was the constant winds that whipped sand around, getting it stuck in his hair and his clothes caught it fairly easily that he found himself brushing off his top and patting it out of his hair on more than one occasion that was the problem. He had to squint a little so he could see without getting sand in his eyes until he decided to try out his training by keeping them closed whenever the wind kicked up sand a little too much.

At least it was good for something other than if he ever summoned the Basilisk in a battle.

Still, he wasn't the only one suffering. The poor Haimaru brothers had to shake out their fur, panting, on more than one occasion. Hana's skin on her face, arms and legs looked a little red, though whether from the sandy winds or the hot sun bearing down on them he wasn't sure. He had also spotted Kabuto having to get sand out of the sash around his waist as well where it had somehow managed to slip inside.

_Maybe I need a change of wardrobe for here,_ Harry thought to himself as he shook sand out of his wide collar. _Maybe like a zip down shirt, or a gi or something? My collar's acting like a sand bowl here,_ He couldn't help but hake his head, seeing more sand fall out of his hair. Sighing, he patted at his dark hair again to knock the dust out for what seemed like the one hundredth time. At this rate his hair colour would closer resemble Naruto's than Sasuke's. _Maybe a hood or something would be good too?_

"Heads up," Shikaku said over the wind. "We're here."

Harry shielded his eyes with his hand and glanced up at the entrance to the village of Sunagakure no Sato, which was unlike Konohagakure entirely. Where Konoha was surrounded by high walls set against the great Hokage cliff-face, Suna was more natural looking, as if it had been created inside a circle of rocky spires that were present in the desert. There were also ninja standing at various points in the canyon-like entry, obviously guarding and maintaining who was to pass through their gates.

"Passes out and don't let the wind snatch them. It'll be troublesome to chase those things down," Shikaku ordered casually.

Somehow, Harry doubted that if they did lose the passes to the wind that they would get them back at all. The wind was quite strong. _Hardly a wonder this place is called Wind Country. Makes you wonder why Fire Country's called that, unless it's more to do with the 'Will of Fire' that Sandaime talks about._

The guards at the gate were probably getting fed up of having to read all the chunin exam passes that had to be going through these gates of late, or at least that's all he could think from the stern and grumpy looking faces of the gate guards. Harry was willing to bet that most of the participants would be from Suna, since they were on home turf, but there had to be a lot of people from all parts of the elemental countries that would be coming here, even the smaller villages that weren't part of the 'Great Five'. Part of him couldn't help but pity the men, forced to stand in the sandy windy heat where there was barely a spot of shade right then due to the angling of the sun. He guessed it wouldn't be too bad now it was evening, but the sun was probably scorching at mid day.

"Chunin exams?" a particularly grumpy ninja clipped out from behind some kind of bandage balaclava.

"Yes. Nara Shikaku with three for the exam," their current Jonin drawled out.

"Passes," he held out his hand expectantly.

Taking it as his cue, Harry pulled out his pass carefully and handed it to the man, followed by Hana and Kabuto's. The man looked them over for a long moment, his hawk-like eyes flicking from the pictures to each of the genin in turn, checking the official seal before finally nodding and passing the passes back. "Very well," the man said. "You can pass. Make sure not to cause any trouble during your stay here. Suna is allies with Konoha but that doesn't mean you can go around doing what you like. Report to the Kazekage, so that he's aware of your arrival. There'll be people there to guide you to where you'll be staying while in the village. Got it?"

"Yeah, we got it," sighed Shikaku.

"Then pass."

With a nod, the four passed by the man, who glared at them the way through. The Uchiha couldn't help but shake his head. The poor man must have been standing guard all day to be that grumpy. Either that or he didn't like the amount of foreigners coming into the village. Oh well, not his problem. He had more important things to do, like seeing what Sunagakure was like and preparing for the Chunin exams that would be held here.

Sunagakure was certainly different from Konohagakure if nothing else. The buildings all appeared to be made out of sand coloured stone (or maybe they were made completely out of sand? It wouldn't surprise him really, considering) and no matter where he looked he couldn't really spot any plant life, or at least anything he really recognised. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed what looked like some kind of carved statues in the distance – a monument for the past Kazekage, perhaps? Similar to in Konoha, however, ninja still wandered around, though there was different styles of clothing and some seemed to have tessen of different shapes and sizes. He was sure he also spotted a kid practicing some kind of puppetry with chakra strings which was quite fascinating to watch as they passed by. Still, most of them threw either confused or suspicious frowns if they caught sight of the Konoha hitae ate except for a few people, whom he assumed must have already known about the exams that were about to take place. It was almost as annoying as when people had tried to see his scar when he had first started Hogwarts, though most learned to give that up after a long while, in view of the fact that his hiate ate always covered it up except when he was asleep.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the building they were now approaching. It was easily the most impressive of the buildings that they had passed so far and soon became a source of interest under Harry's scrutiny. The building, obviously the Kazekage's office from the Kanji that he could see written on the side, was unlike the Hokage's more simplistic tower. This one was round and ball shaped with many tiny windows running around the side of it. Harry could barely tell how it was staying upright and hadn't yet rolled off its platform like a huge ball, but he could only assume that it must be a lot sturdier that he was imagining it to be. Still, he couldn't deny it was certainly interesting and wouldn't be mistaken for just another building after all.

"Be respectful to the Kazekage, you three," Shikaku warned them as they entered the significantly cooler building. "We don't want to cause some kind of international incident because one of you annoyed the leader of an allied village."

_What does he think we're going to do, swear at the guy or something?_ Harry almost rolled his eyes, but refrained. He wondered if he realised he was talking to two people who were from respectful ninja clans and one who was a trained medic. But he let it slide. Maybe he'd just dealt with idiotic Genin before this and it was a standard warning he gave to any other Genin he'd worked with since?

Still, he could be polite enough. It would be similar to talking to the Swamp country Daimyou, only knowing that the Kazekage could throw him about five ways from Sunday if he accidentally pissed him off. After all, he was sure he only got away with teasing the Hokage because the old ninja happened to like the 'Uzuchiha' brothers. So he just shrugged, agreed with the rest and followed the Nara Jonin towards the main office (though how Shikaku knew where it was, was a mystery. Maybe he has been to Suna before?) making sure not to get too much sand from his clothes and sandals onto the floor.

It seemed they weren't the only ones either that were seeing the Kazekage as there were other teams with their sensei going in every now and then, obviously making sure they were fully registered and likely so they wouldn't be accused of being in the village without reason. It was almost interesting to see the different genin that were there. None were from Suna that he could see, but he was willing to bet that those names had already been put forwards. After all, they were native to this village. Still, there were all sorts of shapes and sizes of people. Some were tall and built like a mountain, while others were small and probably barely Harry's age. Some were excited, some looked nervous. He even saw some ninja there who were even older than Kabuto by at least a decade and Harry had to snort, wondering how many times they had taken this exam, because if this wasn't their first time he was shocked they hadn't just resigned themselves to being Genin forever. It was almost shameful to see people almost Iruka's age still not Chunin yet. Of course, he might be a little harsh. For all he knew these people might have just been happy as Genin until recently. He guessed he could let them off if that was the case.

Slowly, the line lowered and teams headed off somewhere or other – probably looking for lodging for the night until the Chunin exams the next day and finally, it was Harry's group that entered the office. Much like the building itself, the office had a different feel to it than that of the Hokage's back in Konoha. The office was wide and open, coloured plainly in the same sandstone colour that all the outside of the buildings shared and even with the many windows, the room just felt distinctly yellowish, though it might have been the faint orange hew that the sandy winds seemed to create outside. Much like the Hokage's office, there was a desk there with various forms of paperwork on it, though he was sure it was distinctly neater than the Hokage's. There was what looked like two Jonin standing either side of the desk while, sitting at the desk itself, a man who Harry could only guess was the Kazekage himself.

The Kazekage came something of a surprise to Harry. After dealing with Sarutobi for as long as he could remember, Harry had been expecting an older man, venerable and wise looking in similar flowing robes and cone like hat, but the Kazekage didn't look all that old at all (though he was indeed wearing robes similar to the ones Sarutobi wore – in blue rather than red.). At least, his hair still had its colour – a rustic reddish-brown auburn. If Harry was to guess, he would have said the man was about the same age as Uncle Fugaku had been before his untimely death. Much like Fugaku, it seemed that the Kazekage wasn't immune from the stresses of ninja life and had creases near his mouth that made it seem that frowning was a more common expression on his face than the Hokage's amiable smile, as if he had been forced to make many hard choices quickly in the past few years. His eyes were sharp and dark in colour. Harry could only assume that the man was something like Fugaku in personality, focused and attentive, probably very dutiful as a Kazekage – he could only guess one needed to be if you were leading a village that was in the middle of a desert (a freaking desert! Seriously!)

"Kazekage-sama," Shikaku gave a bow in greeting.

Quickly, he pulled himself from his thoughts and gave the Kazekage a bow along with the others. He didn't think just standing and gawking at the man would make a good first impression after all.

"Another team from Konoha for the Chunin exams? The last, I believe, that I should be expecting from Konoha," The Kazekage said after checking over one of the papers before him, instead, turning his attention onto the Genin themselves, looking them over. Harry felt the back of his hair stand on end at the man's piercing stare, but looked back just as stonily anyway. Obviously finding whatever he had seen acceptable, he motioned to one of the Jonin, who approached.

"Your passes, please," the man said.

Quickly, half wondering why they needed to check them over so many times, but at the same time reluctantly understanding, Harry fished out his pass once more and offered it to the Jonin, who took it and his teammates' before returning to the Kazekage's side. The man took them from the Jonin and scanned them a moment, matching the faces and names to those standing before him. "Inuzuka Hana, Uchiha Harry and Yakushi Kabuto, correct?"

"Yessir."

"Very well," the Kazekage noted something down on one of the papers before him, obviously completing the registration. "The exams will be in the main hall at 0900 hours tomorrow morning. Failure to show will result in disqualification. Rooms have been provided for our guests from other villages for while you are here in Suna, as long as no trouble is caused." He looked them over sternly. "Understood?"

"Yessir."

"As long as there is an understanding," the man said calmly. Before he could say more, there was a knock on the door and the Kazekage leaned back in his chair. "Enter."

Harry glanced out of the corner of his eye as the door opened and in stepped a girl that had to be the same age as him, about thirteen years old. She had blond hair, though it wasn't quite Naruto's brilliant blond, nor was it Malfoy's practically white either, more of a sandy colour – ironically, considering where they were – that was tied back into four bunches at the back of her head and her eyes were a darkish green colour, almost the same shade as Harry's own dark green, perhaps a little lighter. She wore what looked like a lilac coloured short dress with a crimson sash around it at the waist and he could see fishnet sticking out from around her neck and thighs where the dress didn't cover. Around her neck was a hitae ate with the Suna village symbol on it, but it was still quite new looking, barely scratched at all. She had probably only graduated in the last year or so. But what caught Harry's attention the most was the huge closed Tessen on her back that was almost as big as she was. He was curious as to if she could even lift it. However, she walked quite confidently and didn't seem to be struggling with its weight so he could only assume she knew ever well how to use such a thing, as lumbering as it seemed. She didn't even spare much more than a glance in their direction and Harry was impressed at the least by her professionalism.

"Ah, Temari," the Kazekage noted. "Have you finished guiding the ninja from Iwa to their rooms? If you have, if you can guide this last team to where the Konoha ninja are staying for the exams, then you can be dismissed."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama," she said, though Harry was sure that she hesitated ever so slightly before saying Kazekage. Maybe she was more used to calling him by name? Then again, as Harry glanced between her and the Kazekage himself, he noted very vague resemblance. Maybe he was family? An uncle? Cousin? Or maybe a father and she just more closely resembled her mother? There was always a chance. After all, even the Hokage had sons and a grandson, so why couldn't the Kazekage?

"Well, this way then," the girl – Temari, was it? – jutted her head in a manner to tell them to follow, and quickly lead the way out of the room. Exchanging a glance with the others as they got their passes back once more, Harry just shrugged and did as asked. After all, they were from different villages, she probably just didn't have full trust in them or something, even if their villages had some kind of alliance.

The walk towards the rooms was painfully quiet. Now, Harry wasn't the chattiest of people in the world – Naruto was certainly the most talkative ninja that Harry had ever met – but he wasn't the kind of person who could stay completely quiet for so long when it had so awkwardly descended unless it was on a mission. Besides, as far as he was aware, there was no law in Suna that said you couldn't talk to someone showing you to where you'd be sleeping, so he decided to throw caution to the winds and strike up a conversation with the Suna Kunoichi..

"So…you're Temari, right?" he said, hands in his pockets as he fell into step near her.

"Yeah? Why?" Temari asked almost suspiciously.

"No reason," Harry shrugged. "Just making sure I wasn't going to make a fool of myself and mispronounce your name or something. Didn't think it'd make a good impression on the person who's guiding us around, you know? I'm Harry."

"Hari? As in 'needle'?" Temari raised a brow.

"No, Harry as in…Actually, I've no idea what it means. It's H. A. R. R. Y." (1)

Temari snorted. "That sounds weird."

"Guess it is. My parents liked weird names I guess," Harry shrugged. He was actually surprised that Fugaku had taught him the Katakana to his name rather than just making it the Kanji for 'needle', but maybe he was honouring the Potters or something since they changed his surname to the Uchiha clan one. Harry was kind of grateful, since being called Potter still felt weird even after two years of hearing it. Plus a name meaning 'needle' sucked. "So, are you in the Chunin exams too?"

"No," Temari frowned ever so slightly. "My teams not fully ready yet so I'm waiting for them."

"That's nice of you."

"Is there a reason you're yapping at me about this?" she asked dryly, quirking her brow at him.

"Not really," Harry chuckled, jutting his thumb at his temporary team and sensei. "They're just being boring-"

"Hey!" Hana growled. Harry ignored her despite how amusing her reaction was.

"-and I've never been to Suna before so I thought I might as well at least be a little friendly, unless I'm pissing you off or something?"

"You're about as weird as your name."

"Just about," Harry agreed with a shrug. He wasn't that oblivious to know he was a bit weird. He guessed it came from being the Uchiha Oddball, the current stand in Uchiha head (until Sasuke was old enough), caretaker of Naruto and being a ninja wizard of all things. You couldn't get much weirder, now that he thought about it, unless he was some kind of prophesised child or something, but really, what were the odds of that?

…

…_I'm setting myself up to be jinxed, aren't I…?_

Shaking off that weird thought before he descended into some kind of weird conspiracy of madness or something – he blamed it entirely on spending months with illogical wizards…minus Hermione, of course. She seemed to possess some form of logic after all – Harry turned his attention back to the Suna Kunoichi. "So, you can use that thing then?" Harry indicated the fan on her back, only to have her growl and her hand moved towards its handle.

"I'll show you how well I can use it if you think that I can't," she snapped.

"Woah, woah," Harry quickly held up his hands. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm impressed, actually. I have a friend back in Konoha who's pretty good with weapons and she says they're pretty difficult to manoeuvre at that size. So you've got to be pretty skilled to use it, right?"

Thankfully, it seemed to pacify her as she dropped her hand away from the fan and offered him a smirk. "Of course. Good to know that you seem to realise that. I guess you have some brains for a Konoha ninja," she added with a chuckle. "You're weird, but I guess you're not that bad."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Temari-san," Harry drawled dryly.

Temari just offered him a wicked grin at that, clearly amused. In a way, Temari reminded him a little of Tenten, though Temari herself seemed a far more blunt person than his friend that was now suffering torture alongside Neji with Maito Gai. (He still couldn't help but shiver every time the thought of the two of them in green spandex ever came up. It was a thought that could never be un-thought. Never)

"Well anyway, this is the place," Temari said finally, indicating a building. "You've got rooms marked Twenty and Twenty One. The main hall that the exams taking place in is right near the Kazekage tower and there'll be signs up for the foreign Chunin applicants, so you can't miss it. See you," She offered a half wave in their direction as she left them at the building entrance, no doubt tired after escorting people around all day. It was starting to get a bit late now if the dark orange sky was any indication.

"Troublesome," Shikaku grumbled under his breath.

"What is?" Kabuto asked, curiously.

"Girls like that are," the Nara snorted, before shaking it off. "Anyway, you've got a long day tomorrow so you should settle in and get some sleep before the exams tomorrow. It'll be a bother if you oversleep or something."

"It'd suck if we got disqualified because of that after we got all the way here through the desert of all things," Hana agreed.

"No kidding," Harry chuckled as they headed inside.

The rooms used for those who would be participating in the exams wasn't anything fancy, but they were nice enough, and there was a sliding door that separated the room the boys would use and the girl of the group would use. Each 'room' had their own bathrooms – Hana had got into hers and Harry had managed to get the other bathroom before Kabuto could, eager to try and get the dust and sweat from his body after their hike across the desert. There were futon, pillows and blankets in the room, but not much else. Still, that would be enough for now. After all, it was only going to be a night or two after all. Not to mention it would be far too warm to have full beds. So as long as it wouldn't mean he was covered in sand once he woke up, Harry didn't mind too much.

Still, he felt a lot more human after he had a shower and dressed in a thinner V-necked T-shirt and light grey shorts, towel slung loosely around his neck and hair still damp from the water. It was odd how being hot and covered in dust could make you feel oddly heavy or burdened.

"Ok, bathrooms free," he said to Kabuto and Shikaku. The Jonin just grunted from where he was already lying down on his futon, obviously not that interested, so Kabuto offered thanks and headed into the now vacated room. Currently, the sliding doors between the two rooms was open and Hana was in the middle of drying one of the Haimaru brothers, who was wagging his tail and kept darting out of the way playfully every now and again.

Chuckling, Harry sat cross legged on his futon and pulled the towel over his head, rubbing it dry.

"So, Taichou-chan, were you having fun with our guide?" Hana said slyly.

"Huh?" Harry peered out from under his towel. "I guess she was interesting enough, why?"

"Do you like her, like her?" she added, grinning.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I exchanged a few sentences, that was it," he scoffed, going back to rubbing down his hair with his towel. "By that logic, you'd 'Like like' Kabuto."

"Don't be stupid," Hana growled.

"Same thing, Hana-sempai," Harry pointed out with a smirk.

"You so wanted a Fan Girl."

"I don't know if you know, but I already _have_ fangirls," Harry grumbled. "It's an Uchiha hazard."

"I meant a literal Fan Girl," Hana laughed. "She had a big enough fan anyway."

Harry paused, before groaning at the joke. "Oh har har," he snorted sarcastically, even as Hana snickered. Such was the scene that Kabuto returned to.

"Did I miss something?" Kabuto asked, looking between the two of them in confusion.

"It's nothing," Harryu grumbled. "Hana's just being annoying."

"Taichou-chan's in denial," Hana sang jokingly, only to squawk as Harry tossed his towel in her face.

Rolling his eyes, Harry flopped back on the Futon, looking up at the sandy-coloured ceiling for a long moment. "Anyway, stop saying stupid things. We've got a lot to do tomorrow, so shouldn't we go to sleep now you've finished teasing me about 'Fan Girls'."

Hana pulled the towel from her face, snickering, but nodded. "Yep. Night then you two," Hana added, sliding the door shut between the two rooms once more.

"Thinking about it…" Kabuto said as he sat down on his own Futon, removing his gasses. "I'm sure I _really_ don't want to know."

"Very wise," Harry drawled, tugging the thin sheet over himself. "Night."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Harry sighed as he turned onto his back for the fifth time in the past ten minutes, putting the back of his hand on his sweaty forehead. The thin sheet had long since been thrown off and was in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the futon. Honestly, he had underestimated just how warm the desert could be. Though it was night and as such cooler than in the day, it was still far too warn for him to be cool enough and comfortable enough to actually sleep properly right now. There wasn't even any air conditioning to put him out of his misery.

The Uchiha scowled at the darkened ceiling. If he hadn't had to spend so long in colder climates like Scotland on the 'Outside' then he would at least be comfortable enough to sleep even if it was a bit warm. But at this rate he'd be tired and irritable by the time morning came and when there were exams to become Chunin coming up that was the last thing he needed.

Sighing, Harry sat up and whipped his forehead with his wrist. Maybe just sitting outside in the slightly cooler air would help him enough that he would be able to sleep after a bit? After all, he was only making himself hotter tossing and turning like this.

Carefully, so as not to disturb anyone, Harry carefully got up and crept over to where his sandals were, toeing them on once he was sure they were devoid of any sand and, with a quick glance to make sure is team mates were still asleep, Harry carefully slipped out through the window and flipped himself up onto the flat roof with the help of his chakra. The wind was a little cooler than he expected as it caused his hair to brush around his face slightly, cooling the beads of sweat on his skin, making him shiver slightly, but it felt much better than when he had been dying of heat back in the bedroom. If the room itself had a breeze, Harry would have been easily able to sleep. Sighing softly, he sat, one legged crossed, the other dangling down, stretching a little as he idly looked over at the village from his perch at the roof's edge.

The winds, it seemed, had died down considerably so that it was no longer carrying sand through the skies and the clear light of the moon bathed the village in its light. Bathed in its silver hue as it was, Harry was surprised to find the village was actually quite beautiful, though in a much different way than Konoha was in his eyes. The sand seemed to shimmer slightly where the moon reflected on the sand, making it glitter slightly like diamonds where it hit. The faint wind moved the loose sand sometimes, making the glittering shift, as if the village itself were alive somehow, yet at the same time, the village also seemed so quiet without the movement of people. It was a strange feeling that Harry couldn't really describe. It almost felt as if he were the only person for miles.

A faint scuffing sound of feet on sandstone and a shadow falling across him quickly broke that illusion.

"Who are you?"

Quickly, Harry whipped his head around and up to see who was standing over him, only to be surprised when, instead of some ninja guard wondering what exactly he was doing, he found himself looking at a boy no older than his own brothers. He was a little short, about Naruto's height, with red hair, only instead of the orange-ish flame colour that the Weasley's hair was made of; the boy's was a bright crimson blood red. Teal coloured eyes stared down at him, looking out at him through the dark shadow-like marks that circled them. On his forehead was the kanji 'Ai', though it seemed an odd thing to have tattooed onto one's forehead, and looked about as red as the lightning bolt that marked Harry's own forehead. He also wore on his back a huge gourd that looked about as big as the boy himself that Harry was surprised he had barely heard the boy before the sounds of footsteps had reached his ears. He also thought the boy was tense like a spring, not to mention he was sure he saw some sand near him actually move, but maybe that was the breeze or the moonlight playing tricks?

Still, he put that thought to the back of his mind as he looked into the teal coloured eyes once more, drawn by their appearance. Though the boy's face was blank, the look in his eyes made Harry's heart almost physically ache.

"Your eyes…"

He recognised that look. He had seen part of it in Naruto's eyes before Harry had drawn him into his little family, a deep aching loneliness. Yet at the same time, it also resembled the look Sasuke had had in his eyes after the Uchiha massacre, the same look Harry had born if only for a little while before he had the sense knocked back into him and he had taken responsibility for his cousin-turned-little-brother.

"Yeah…I know those eyes. I'm sorry," Harry added sincerely. Whatever the boy had lost to gain such a look must have been painful to strip the innocence from those teal eyes. And they widened fractionally, the boy obviously thrown off by Harry's words. Realising what he'd actually said without really thinking about it, Harry almost grimaced. It sounded like some weird mystic mumbo jumbo that a centaur would have spouted. However, he'd said it now and his words had obviously thrown the other for a loop.

"What do you mean," the other said finally.

"Well, I just recognise the look. They kind of reminded me of my brothers back in Konoha," Harry shrugged.

"Brothers?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I think I've had eyes like that once too," he admitted. "Feeling lonely…betrayed…hurt, wanting to lash out at whatever caused that pain in the first place…" He rubbed the back of his head with a chuckled. "Ah, sorry, I guess it's kind of rude of me to just outright say stuff like that, huh?"

"…why aren't you scared of me?"

Harry raised a brow. "Should I be?"

The redhead's brow furrowed slightly, hands clenched as if he wanted to do something but wasn't sure what action to fully take. "I'm a Monster."

Harry leaned over a bit, looking him over intently and actually made the boy step back a little – the sand definitely moved that time! A Kekkei genkai, maybe? Hell, he'd heard of weirder than being able to control sand, he guessed. After all, he had eyes that could copy jutsu and magic and could cast a some Genjutsu, not to mention he could talk to snakes of all things. "Hm…I don't think you look like a monster," Harry said finally with a shrug. "You look like a ten…ish year old kid to me. Anyway, when you've seen three headed dogs, snakes that can kill you by looking you in the eye, half-man-half-horse people and killer plants, you kind of have to know what a 'monster' is."

"I have a demon sealed in me," the boy said, almost insisting, as if he wanted Harry to start freaking out or something. "Why aren't you scared?"

"Hey, you're like one of my brothers then," Harry blinked. "I….never knew there were others. Naruto'll be happy. Maybe….eh…well, I suppose he could have someone to relate to his fuzzy-problem with." Seeing the boy's practically incredulous stare, Harry could only guess most were not as understanding. "What? If I started freaking about that, I'd be a damned hypocrite, wouldn't I?"

"I've killed people."

"So've most ninja."

"I've killed people who didn't need to be killed. I could kill you right now."

"Is this a long winded way of trying to get me to fight?" Harry asked finally. "Because it's really to hot for this and I have Chunin exams tomorrow. So….if you're done trying to make me freak out then ether outright threaten me or come and sit down. It's to hot to argue, really."

With that, Harry took a gamble and looked away again out at the sand, silently praying that he hadn't just done something incredibly foolish. _If Sasuke found out I did this, he'd murder me, plain and simple._

As it was, Harry's gamble seemed to have paid off as, after a moment, the boy had hesitated, then came to sit beside Harry, legs dangling off the edge and fingers grasping the sides of the roof, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes suspiciously for a long moment, as if waiting for him to turn around and try to kill him or something. Mentally breathing a sigh of relief, Harry offered him a smile before looking back at the moon-lit rooftops once more.

"You're….really strange," the boy said finally.

"So I'm told," Harry replied dryly. _Well, I've never exactly claimed to be _normal_ at any rate. _"So what's your name then?"

"…Gaara…"

"Gaara, huh? Nice to meet you Gaara," Harry offered him a smile. "I'm Harry."

"Hari…?"

"No no, 'Harry'. Like this," Harry corrected, drawing the katakana on the ground in the loose sand grains for him to see. "I know, it's weird," he added, seeing Gaara's brow furrow a little. "But that was the name my parents gave me before they died, so…" he shrugged. "So….how come you're out so late then?" Harry asked finally. Honestly, the boy felt so very much like his brothers that it was hard not to fall into a similar routine.

"I don't sleep."

Harry's brows went up at that. "Insomnia?"

"Mother won't let me."

Harry wasn't sure what he thought of that. When he said 'mother', Harry had a distinct feeling he wasn't talking about a normal, living, breathing mother. Could he possibly mean the demon that was sealed into him?

"When I sleep…things get destroyed," Gaara continued. "Or someone tries to kill me."

"Ah….good enough reasons not to sleep then," Harry winced. Hell if that happened to him, he'd be a bit paranoid about sleeping too. "But seriously, kill you? Who'd do that?"

"My Father."

"…No offence, but you're father's a right moronic bastard."

"The Kazekage's my father," Gaara added quietly.

"…" Harry almost face-palmed right then and there that he just insulted the Kazekage and Gaara's father in one breath. Still, Gaara had responded quite emotionlessly at that, so he could only assume that he didn't care. He gave him a sheepish look, putting a finger over his own lips. "Don't tell him I said that then, ok?"

Was that a shadow of a smile that flickered on the boy's pale face?

_Oh yeah! Still got it! _Harry couldn't help but mentally snicker, seeing as he seemed to have amused the rather stoic boy

"Are all Konoha ninja like you?" Gaara asked finally.

"Hm…not really," Harry thought after a moment, tapping his chin and looking at the sky. "Some are weirder."

Gaara gave him an odd look at that. "_Weirder_?"

_What, don't you trust me?_ "Oh yeah," Harry nodded seriously. "If you ever come to Konoha, watch out for anyone who might be wearing green spandex, otherwise you'll be subject to a completely new type of insanity of grinning teeth, weird poses, proclamations of youth, crashing water and rainbows."

"Rainbows?"

"Rainbows."

"…Your village is weird."

"…You have no idea…" Harry chuckled. "You'd probably like my brothers though. They're about your age. Especially Naruto. It's hard to not like him," Harry added with a laugh. "And Naruto's the kind of guy you either become friends with, or he annoys you until you just _have_ to become friends with him."

"How can he so easily try to befriend others?" Gaara frown, hands clenched tightly too the roof that his knuckles almost turned white, his tone a bitterness that surprised even Harry. "Loving other people, caring for other people….its useless. The only person that one should love is themselves. A person should love themselves and fight for themselves, to prove their true existence."

"I don't think you truly believe that," Harry said quietly.

"What do you know? I'm alone. I've always been alone-"

"Loneliness…is hell, isn't it?"

Gaara practically choked on whatever he was going to say, teal eyes fixing on Harry in shock. Quickly, Harry pressed on. "My parents were murdered. My mother even gave her life to protect me from being murdered as well," he explained finally, gently running his finger over his lightning bolt shaped scar. "I was a bit too young to know about it at the time, but when I was eight, almost nine, my family were all killed too except for Sasuke. It hurt," he closed his eyes. "For so long it hurt, to know that kind of loneliness. If it weren't for Sasuke…and later, for Naruto…I'm not sure what I would have been like. I might have been like you are. But those two…and a few others, they helped me to realise that I'm really not as alone as I thought. My 'existence' has meaning, because of their friendship and their love."

"Existence can only be proven by being stronger and killing those stronger, their deaths make _me_ stronger."

"Once they're all dead, what will you do then?" Harry asked, looking over at the other, who suddenly gripped his head.

"Stop…stop screwing around with my head!" he snapped.

"I'm not," Harry said. "It's a simple question. Once you're the strongest, what will you do then? How can you prove your existence if all those who had once been 'strong' are dead?"

His question was practically met by silence, only the winds faint whistle replying to his question. And Harry knew already that Gaara had no answer to give him.

"Well…you don't have to answer," Harry said finally, patting the other's shoulder, which made the boy stiffen and the sand suddenly shift, but thankfully, other than hovering protectively, it didn't attack him or anything, even though Gaara himself seemed almost surprised. Harry had the feeling he somehow managed to just dodge a kunai of some kind. Honestly, he was starting to think his mouth needed a zipper. First taunting Riddle, now disturbing Gaara. He so needed some form of CAT scan, because surely all the training with Anko had given him brain damage that he just couldn't watch his mouth. Or his actions, apparently.

"Just have a think on it," he said finally. "I mean, it's just an idle thought and you know, I'm weird, remember?"

Climbing to his feet, he stretched slightly. "Well, I need to sleep now, since I've got the Chunin exams tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you around?" he asked, offering him a smile, though he was sure Gaara was still looking at him, one hand on his head as if Harry had just turned into a pumpkin or something in front of him.

"Aa…" He said finally.

"Oyasumi nasai," Harry said finally, deciding to leave the kid with his thoughts as he moved back to the room he had been using, slipping in quietly through the window once more, carefully unfastening his sandals.

"Where've you been?" Shikaku grunted from his futon. Almost jumping a mile, Harry looked over to see the man's eyes glinting faintly in the moonlight.

"Just for a breath of air," Harry whispered back, so as not to wake the others. "It got too warm for me and I didn't want to have a shower again in case I woke anyone up."

"Hmph," Shikaku grunted and flopped over on his other side. "Kids. So troublesome."

The Uchiha just shook his head, rolling his eyes. Honestly, everything was troublesome for that guy. He guessed it was just the Nara way. Apparently there was a Nara in his brothers' class that was exactly the same.

Carefully, Harry padded across the room and placed his sandals with everyone else's before making his way back to his futon, glancing at his teammates. Kabuto lay rather still on his side, eyes closed and the only movement that Harry could see was his gentle deep breathing. Hana was laying more spread out, her dogs curled up at various points around her, her blanket somewhere at the foot of her bed. Thankfully, she didn't snore either. Making sure not to disturb either of them, Harry crept to his futon and eased himself down, deciding to forgo his blanket as he lay one of his hands over his forehead, the other laying somewhere above his head as he stared up at the dark ceiling streaked by moonlight.

_Gaara, huh…_

Gaara had been practically stunned when Harry had reacted so nonchalantly to him – he hadn't been lying when he said that all the thoughts of the creatures of the magical world, not to mention the fact his brother had Kyuubi sealed within him, had made the idea of demons almost normal to him. Honestly though, if Harry hadn't thrown him off as he had, unintentionally or not, Harry knew that the meeting he had with the redhead would likely have been a far less pleasant one, considering how Gaara had revealed his own philosophies on life.

_I guess me just saying what I think actually ended up working out well this time…but honestly, I really need to learn to curb my tongue, _Harry couldn't help but sigh. _But still…it makes me wonder. If it wasn't for the Sandaime, for Sasuke and Naruto…would I have become as bitter as Gaara has? Or as Riddle, who became Voldemort? What about Sasuke? If I hadn't been spared, would he have remained stuck wanting only to become stronger to kill the one who betrayed us…? And Naruto…?_

He paused, then snorted. _No way. I can't see anything ever keeping Naruto down for long. He's just too…bright to end up like that. Still…I wonder if one day Naruto will ever meet Gaara? Maybe he can see that just because there's a demon inside him that it doesn't make him a demon too…?_

…

_Ugh, too much thinking for this time of night!_

Harry snorted and closed his eyes. After all, he would have a long day ahead of him on the morrow, and sleep was what he needed, not chasing thoughts around his head all night thinking on what ifs and maybes. He could think about Gaara and those alternate paths life could have taken when he had a fewer things to think on. But, the Chunin exam would come first and he was going to be in Suna for a few days yet at the very least, so he could always find the boy to talk to him again. Hopefully Gaara would be amiable enough not to strike with his sand as Harry had half expected him to do when he had thrown his question out to him.

_My brothers'll still probably kill me for playing with fire again so soon after everything with the Basilisk, _the Uchiha couldn't help but chuckle as he finally drifted off to sleep.

**To Be Continued…**

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_**Translation List:**_

_~Kazekage – 'Wind Shadow', the leader of Sunagakure (the counterpart to Konoha's Hokage)_

_~Tessen – a type of battle fan. Some have steel tips to them to allow them to be used physically, though in the ninja world, tessen seem to be mostly used for Wind jutsu._

_~Gomon/Jinmon Butai – the Torture and Interogation squad_

_~Chakra no Mesu – Chakra scalpel – a medical jutsu that is used in surgery, enabling one to cut through muscles, tendons etc without actually breaking the skin. One of Kabuto's signature abilities. (Admittedly I thought that this and Shousen (mystic palm) were one and the same, but was informed of my mistake and as such corrected it)_

_~Shousen Jutsu – Mystic palm – a healing jutsu where the users hands glow green and they are able to heal with the chakra. Harry learned this from a medical-ninja's scroll after his first brush with the Forest of Death._

_~Hari – 'needle'. Also the closest way of spelling/pronouncing Harry's name in Japanese._

_~ H. A. R. R. Y. – now, this is not a translation exactly and more trivia, but for the English language, that is obviously Harry spelling out his name, since I don't know how to get Japanese written words to show him spelling this in a logical manner that wouldn't confuse everyone. However, in Japanese, there isn't a Romanised alphabet system (unless using Romanji, which is just a way for people to semi-read Japanese outside of the usual written system). Harry later writes his name in Katakana when with Gaara, however. Rather than the Kanji for 'Needle' (see above) in Katakana, Harry's name would use the Katakana for Ha, Ru and Ri. Meaning that if it was spelt out it Katakana and directly translated out, Harry's actual spelling for his name would have been Haruri. However, I felt it would become confusing to spell his name like that, so I stuck to his English spelling throughout the fic so far. Since Harry is so used to being called Uchiha, the only surname he's known his entire life until he turned eleven, he obviously refuses to answer to simply 'Potter'. However, he knew his family was killed and they named him Harry. Keeping that name and the Katakana closest to Harry as his spelling, in this case, is how he honours his father and mother, rather than using the more simple spelling of Hari. (Just because people keep asking me about that and seem confused about why Harry's so adamant as being called 'Uchiha' and not 'Potter')_

_~Ai – Love_

_~Aa – an informal way of saying 'Yeah'_

_~Oyasumi nasai – Goodnight_

_**Chosha's Notes:**_

_Phew. Another Chapter done. I hope that it was ok, since I wanted to begin the Chunin exam parts in separate chapters of their own, if I can get it that way. It depends on how interesting I can get the first exam and how long the second exam ends up being. I had been hoping for some help with the first exam, but I believe that I do have something up my sleeve now, mostly thanks to Chrystel Malfoy-Potter, who gave me the basic idea and who'll have next chapter dedicated to her in thanks. Then again, I did also talk about the poll for the Basilisk's name also…lol. Maybe I should be more specific? _

_Speaking of the Basilisk's name, the results are in. The Name most people voted for is Shinome. I kinda-liked Gamayou personally, but I'm sure I can think of a use for that name somewhere else. Lol._

_Though if anyone has ideas for any other parts of the exam, feel free to leave ideas in a review. You'll get a chapter dedicated to you if I use your idea._

_Ok, things to talk about with this chapter. Before anyone asks, no, I've not decided to pair Harry with Temari, despite Hana teasing him about it. I think I've already mentioned this, but parings are not going to be a huge part. Mentioning's of parings are mostly for humours sake when its obvious, but I might drop hints of things in interactions and you guys can make your own conclusions. I find it difficult to just throw in parings unless it feels very natural and I'd rather not mess with the story's tone. So why put Temari in there? Well…hey, I like Temari. *shrugs* plus since I was going to have Gaara show up anyway, I thought I might as well have the female representative for Suna appear as well. Plus, by how I estimate things, Harry is actually about the same age as Temari, this being two years older than Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara. Harry just graduated at ten, however, instead of the usual 12. As for why I brought Gaara in…? Well, why not? They're in Suna, he was bound to have met him at some point. Not that that conversation will suddenly make him the character he becomes after Naruto's 'therapy jutsu', but it can always have him think on it a bit. I'm thinking he didn't just attack Harry because, honestly, he probably was shocked by Harry's under reacting. Lol. But like Harry said, he's seen some weird stuff and if he screamed at Gaara, it wouldn't do much for him anyway, since Naruto's in the same position and Harry's already worked out about Naruto's Jinchuriki status (even if he doesn't know the proper word for it yet)._

_Well, I hope things made sense for you and you enjoyed. Please Review! ^_^_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **Well, the Chunin exams are about to begin! The First exam is up and tensions are already high, but…what's this? A request? Next episode: The Chunin exams: Part One. Dedicated to Chrystel Malfoy-Potter. You wont want to miss it!_

**Until Next Time,**

**Ja ne!**

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


	23. Chapter 22: The Chunin Exam: 1st Exam

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_This chapter has been dedicated to **Chrysel Malfoy-Potter**, who helped me to think up some ideas for the First Exam of the Chunin Exams._

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_The time for the Chunin exams arrive and Harry, with his new team mates prepare to leave for Suna. After Kabuto shows his skill with the Ninja Info Cards, Nara Shikaku, stand in sensei for the team leads them to Suna to register for the Chunin exams. There, they meet the Kazekage, a young Kunoichi named Temari and, later that night, a boy named Gaara, who reminds Harry of his brothers. Harry and Gaara converse for a while during the night, but Harry feels curious about the boy and how he has become so bitter. However, he decides to think on it later since the chunin exams begin the very next day._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Dedicated to Chrystel Malfoy-Potter**

**Chapter Twenty Two**

**The Chunin Exams: The First Exam**

The next morning came and with it, there was a sense of excitement and nerves that seemed to fill the room as Harry prepared himself for the day. After all, today was very important – the beginning of the Chunin exams. It was only as they were following the signs to the building where the exam was going to take place, however, that Harry actually found himself becoming somewhat nervous about what was to come. After all, these exams weren't like the ones in the magical world. Hell, they weren't even like the Genin exams prior to being placed into teams – though now that he thought about it, Anko's test was probably extremely close to it – and he honestly wasn't sure what to expect. He doubted it would be something simple. After all, Chunin were placed into more dangerous situations than genin, even taking on leadership roles, so the only thing that Harry could assume would be that even if they asked something simple, there would be much more to it. Look underneath the underneath and all that. But then again, what if they were expecting that train of thought and it was actually something you're supposed to do and not think too deeply about?

Ok, now he was really feeling jittery.

_Stop getting nervous_, Harry scolded himself, slapping the sides of his face to knock those spinning thoughts from his head. _You've dealt with Anko. Nothing's worse than a pissy Anko. If you can deal with a pissy Anko, you can deal with anything. Man up, Uchiha!_

"Uh…What are you doing…?" Kabuto asked, blinking at the youngest team member, who could feel the heat creeping up his neck as he realised he had just been caught.

"Um…nothing….just…" Harry really couldn't think of what he could say to make that action seem normal and it just made him feel even more embarrassed. "Its nothing!" he growled finally, shoving Kabuto forwards. "Keep walking and eyes in front!"

He was sure that the elder Genin was both concerned and amused by this, if the carefully stifled chuckle was any indication – well, that and protests as he matched Kabuto forwards - and Harry did the most mature thing he could think of and stuck his tongue out at him. Still, it had worked as something of a distraction for the bubbling nerves, though whether that had been Kabuto's intention or whether it was genuine concern for the youngest Genin's sanity, he wasn't sure. He appreciated it though as he continued to frog-match the other forwards, ignoring Hana's chuckles at the two boys antics.

Shikaku, of course, rolled his eyes a little as he escorted them to the exam building.

The Exam building was much like the other buildings of Sunagakure in style, made of the same sandstone, and appeared to be some kind of off-shoot from the ninja academy, though Harry had a feeling it was probably only used for Chunin applicants and for Chunin who would be training to become academy instructors, than used by the academy students themselves. As they approached, Harry could see some teams already entering the building, while outside, there were a few Jonin instructors who appeared to be giving last minute advice before waving the Genin off and vanishing in various forms of Shunshin to wherever they would be going whilst the exams were taking place. It was odd to see so many different Hitae ate around bearing many different forms than the Konoha leaf. Some were the Suna gourd; there was the Kumo clouds, the Iwa rocks, and the Kiri wave patterns etched into the various metal plates. He even saw some lesser known patterns carved in the surface of some of them, such as the symbol for Kusa (jagged grass) and the symbol for Taki (that looked almost like downward arrows representing a waterfall). He was sure he saw the star shape of a Hoshi ninja as one team of three entered as Shikaku pulled them up short and turned to them. Pulling his eyes away from the various village symbols, Harry turned his attention to their temporary instructor.

"Alright, you three, pay attention," Shikaku said, hands stuffed in his pockets as he scanned them all with his sharp but lazy-looking gaze. "It'll be troublesome if you end up missing something if you don't." Noting that all of them had their eyes on Shikaku at this point, the Nara continued. "These exams will be in three parts, so don't let your guards down if you do well on the first part. If you feel completely in over your head you have certain points in the exam that you could quit in, but if one of you quits, you all do. Troublesome, but you don't get that change in real life. Anyway, give it your best shot."

"Right."

"Oh, and Anko-san says that if you don't do your best and at least make it passed the second exam, then she'll set a Fire Country Tiger on you to chase you around the village for a few days before dumping you in the Forest of death," the Jonin added to Harry, who grimaced.

"Right…" Harry grumbled, trying to ignore the sympathetic winces from Kabuto and Hana. Obviously they hadn't forgotten their little run around in the Forest of Death and Anko's sadistic tendencies. They still didn't need to give him those pitting looks though.

"Good luck then," he nodded, before vanishing in a poof of smoke.

"Freaking crazy woman," Harry grumbled, rubbing his temples. How was it that she still managed to find ways to threaten him when she wasn't even there? It had to take talent. And trust her for her version of 'Good Luck' to be a threat if he didn't get to at least the third exam.

"How've you survived her for so long, Taichou-chan?" Hana asked curiously.

"Pure dumb luck and stubbornness, I imagine," Harry shrugged. "Anyway, I happen to like not being Tiger-chow, so shall we get this over and done with?" he added, jutting a thumb towards the doors.

"I'm sure there's a bit more than that involved than stubbornness and good luck," Kabuto protested, shaking his head at Harry's dry reply.

"Eh, who knows?" Harry shrugged as they slipped into the building, passing by a few other groups of ninja, some of whom looked them over as if searching for the weakest members of the groups to pick off. Harry ignored them, however, knowing they would only be more trouble if he paid attention to them. They'd probably go out of their way to pick them off if they felt they were 'looked at strangely' or something. And as antagonistic as Harry could be at times he had made a vow to curb his tongue after all, so telling the other Genin to bugger off and go glare at someone else would probably not aid him in his life expectancy, no matter how strong an urge it was to hiss at them.

To take his mind off the dark looks the other Genin shot their way occasionally in their glares at the 'competition', Harry turned his attention back to Kabuto. "So, you've taken these tests a few times, right? So, do they change a lot, or are they the same?"

"Well, the ones I've taken so far were in all different villages," Kabuto admitted as they walked. "But they all have a similar structure: a written exam, a survival exam and a tournament-based one-on-one battle exam for the third. The written exam normally has some kind of twist to it, though, but those change depending on the examiner, not to mention the questions are always different. The survival exam is usually in one of the dangerous training areas, and usually there's a task to do, such as collecting something, or taking something to someone – simulations of missions, I guess you could say. The last exam, like I said, is pretty simple tournament styled exam, where you show off your skills to people watching. You don't have to win to get to Chunin, but you need to show off a decent amount of skill, either making the fight impressive, showing certain amounts of intellect and strategy, that kind of stuff."

"I can understand the last two," Hana said with a frown. "But a written exam? That sounds…well, academy-ish."

"Maybe it's supposed to see that you haven't knocked your head too many times and lost too many brain cells since graduation or something?" Harry joked, but honestly, he wasn't particularly sure why they would have a written exam, but he guessed they wanted to check that they at least knew their theory? But then again, Kabuto mentioned something about 'twists' in the written exam, so maybe he was overlooking something? Either that or the twist was some kind of physiological exam that they do to make sure the people were mentally stable enough to become Chunin?

Probably not though, otherwise how on earth did people like Anko, or worse, Gai, actually become Jonin, never mind Chunin?

Once more shaking off his weird thoughts – he blamed it on the desert heat – they followed the other groups of Genin into a large room filled with desks, though very few people were actually sitting at them. Some sat on the desks; others leaned against walls, eyeing whoever came in, while others talked quietly amongst themselves. There was still an edge of tension in there, just at the edge of Harry's senses that made him feel a little tense himself. Not really any wonder, there was Genin from all different villages in one room with only a few people dressed in uniforms (the Chunin proctors?) dotted around the edges of the room to keep any of them from doing something stupid. Not every village had alliances or friendly ties to each other, and Harry was sure that there would be Iwa ninja and a few Kumo ninja there that probably resented Konoha ninja due to the various wars in the past, passed from parents to children. Thankfully, it seemed like no one wanted to risk their promotions to Chunin by attacking anyone in front of the Suna Chunin guarding the room, so all any of them could do was clench fists, grit teeth and scowl to show their antipathy.

"My dogs could probably bite the tension in the room," Hana murmured as they headed to a free spot in the room so that they could make sure none of the other ninja could sneak up on them. "I wonder if they have any problems of any of the Genin attacking another Genin from a different village before."

"They have in the past," Kabuto murmured in reply, adjusting his glasses. "But if you attack people before the exam and are caught, it can result in disqualification. Since we're being watched," Kabuto nodded to the examiners around the room, "I'm guessing no one wants to risk it."

"It'd suck to explain that to their village leaders if they got sent home because they couldn't keep their tempers," Harry agreed, rubbing the back of his head. He still wished that there wasn't so much tension in the air though – it was making the hair at the back of his neck stand on end. Everyone seriously needed to calm down. Then again, perhaps they were all just trying to channel exam nerves into something else, but the amount of testosterone being thrown around in every glare was getting a bit ridiculous by this point. Understandable it might be, but did they have to force those nerves onto everyone else too?

_Come on…this is going to drive me crazy…_Harry sighed. _Someone break this tension already!_

Thankfully, his prayers seemed to be answered when the doors opened and a man walked through, flanked by other Chunin, all wearing the same examiner uniforms that the other Chunin were wearing. The Jonin, however, was dressed differently. He was a rather tall man, likely in his early twenties with black hair that was swept over one eye, and a goatee at his chin under a small mouth. The rest of his hair was hidden under a turban-like head covering that Harry had seen worn by some of the other ninja in the village, including some of the Chunin that were guarding the room. His skin was tanned, no doubt from living in a desert-village. His single visible eye was narrow and dark as it scanned over all the Genin in the room, who had fallen silent the moment the door had been opened. Unlike the Chunin, though, the man wore the Suna uniform – a flak jacket that was more a sand colour than the Konoha green jacket, while his shirt and trousers were more a dark brown than the navy or blacks that Harry was used to seeing on the various people who wore the standard Jonin clothes back home.

The man strode up to the front of the room before turning to them, the two Chunin that entered will him stood either side of him, but a few steps behind, hands behind their backs in a relaxed, but militaristic pose. The Jonin himself leaned against the desk, scanning everyone over a moment longer before he started to speak, his face as unmoving as it was when he first walked into the room.

"Welcome to the Chunin exams," the man said finally. "I am Yuura, and I'll be the Proctor in charge of this examination. You are all here as Genin with the potential to be Chunin. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you are currently capable of being able to handle what it means to be a Chunin. As such, I will be one of the people today that will be testing those capabilities, and leading those worthy onwards into their first steps at gaining the promotion you desire. That doesn't mean that all of you here today will make the cut, of course." Yuura looked them over. "Out of the many people here, it is likely that only ten percent of you, at _most_, will actually become Chunin. The rest of you will have to wait for another time, _if_ you survive the trials to come. So if you want to become Chunin at _this_ try, then you need to put everything into this exam. Reluctance and half-heartedness will get you nowhere here. If you have any problems with this, you can walk away now, and try another time when you are fully prepared."

Somehow, Yuura made 'being prepared' sound a lot more sinister than he probably should do, considering that, unless Suna had changed the format of these exams, the only danger in a written exam was accidentally getting a paper cut or stabbing yourself with a pen. Or maybe Harry was just desensitised to these things after all the time being Anko's student. The veiled threat seemed to get to some of the others, however, and Harry could see a few exchange looks and one swallow slightly. Maybe those people had only come because the rest of their team had, but hadn't particularly felt ready themselves?

Despite how nervous some of them had become, no one had got up to leave just yet, however, Harry had a feeling it would only be a matter of time before the 'weak' were weeded out from the exam, either by forfeit or due to failing the various parts of the exam.

Warning being said, Yuura stood up straighter, arms crossed as he surveyed the Chunin hopefuls. "Now for the first of your exams, you will be required-," Yuura held out a hand, and one of the Chunin stepped forwards, handing him some papers that Yuura held up for the others to see, his lips quirking into a semblance of a smile, "-to do a written test."

Harry was sure that there was a thud from somewhere in the room. Had someone face faulted at the idea of a written test after the veiled threats? He shook off the idea, however, deciding it was probably his imagination as he turned his attention back to Yuura once more.

"For this test, you will not be sitting with any of your team members, to avoid any conferring during the exam," Yuura explained. "You will be given numbers and will take the seats that correspond with your seating number." He motioned to the Chunin littered around the edges of the room and they approached, handing out to each of the people in there slips of paper.

Harry looked at the one that he had been given – his number appeared to place him near the back of the room, but in the centre of the row. He had a muscular looking Kumo ninja (it took him a moment or two to realise the heavily muscled teen was actually female) sitting to his left, while a nervous, reedy looking Suna ninja sat to his right. Ignoring them – it was difficult with the huge and imposing kunoichi next to him that always seemed to be visible in the corner of his eye no matter where he looked – Harry checked where his teammates had been placed. A few rows ahead, Hana was sitting to the left of her column, her nin-dogs sitting close by, while Kabuto was about three or four rows from the front, sitting to the right.

With everyone settled into their new seats, Yuura handed out the papers, though upside down so that no one would look at them just yet. Not that a few people didn't try, but they were glared down by the Chunin who had positioned themselves once more around the edges of the rounded room, making them move there hands away from the papers once more, some sullenly, others sheepish at being caught.

Papers out, the proctor returned to the front of the now far more organised looking room.

"If you're all finished," he said almost sarcastically at the few who had attempted to peek, "Then I'll explain the rules to this part of your exam. If you don't follow these rules, you will be disqualified and sent packing. Now, for this exam, you must answer all the questions in front of you as best you can. However, it'll be in your best interest to get them all right. Because once the test is over, you must figure out the code that the test answers are written in, to pick the correct door in the next room. If you pick the correct way, then you will pass. Choose the wrong door, and you will fail the first exam, along with the rest of your team mates. So as stated, it will be in your interest to get the questions correct."

Harry winced at the thought. Wow, so if you got even one question wrong here, you might end up choosing the wrong door because the codes would be wrong. And he highly doubted the questions were going to be multiple choice either. Not that Harry thought he would choke because of a written test. He wasn't stupid after all and he was sure his team mate weren't either. Sure, Kabuto had taken these exams a few times, but he said it was generally bad luck in the latter parts of the exam that he screwed up on.

He pulled himself from his thoughts as Yuura continued.

"Now, as you can see, there are various people guarding the outside of the room. These people will be watching you to make sure there will be no conferring, and no cheating. If you are caught cheating four times, not only will you fail, but the rest of your teams will fail as well. The same for if you confer. Sop unless you want to fail not only yourselves and your team, you should think twice about breaking those rules. Be warned though, that all your 'watchers' have extremely sharp eyes, and anyone foolish enough to get caught by those watchers….well, they don't deserve to be here in the first place. If you want to be considered shinobi, then prove that you are _exceptional_ shinobi. You have one hour. Begin."

Harry flipped his paper over and scanned the questions, a deep frown on his face as he read through them. They were varied questions, involving complex calculations based on principles of uncertainty and breaking various codes, even analysis of energy requirements – extremely advanced questions. Too advanced. These questions….no one of Genin level would know the answer to these questions unless they were exceptionally advanced, or were like Hermione and read almost every book in existence (though, of course, in this case, every Shinobi book and scroll in existence).

_It's almost like they're trying to make us all fail,_ Harry bit his thumb, frowning. _I know they mentioned a ten percent pass to Chunin out of the lot of us, but…I'm not sure even ten percent of us would know the answer to all of these, and that's not even considering what kind of tests they would be getting later on. I could probably get about three of them…but the rest would be pure guess work, and if I guessed wrong, then the whole team would fail. But if I don't try at all, then we'd definitely fail, because I wouldn't even have an educated guess at which door is the correct one…Dammit…_

Even now he could see the watchers scribble something once or twice. _Looks like someone got caught…_

_But….wait…_ Harry blinked, sitting back in his seat. _Come to think about it, they did bring up cheating a lot, and with a ridiculous amount of consequences for doing so, but….if Cheating is something they want to prevent, why not throw out the people as soon as they're caught, instead of giving four chances? After all, even at Hogwarts, they have special quills to prevent cheating, and I know in the academy, if you cheated you got disqualified from the exam the moment you were caught. Unless…_ Harry sucked in a breath as realisation crashed down on him. _Unless they actually want us to cheat! They just want us to do so without getting caught. Ninja act as spies and gather information all the time. Hell, Anko and I did that on our mission to Swamp country, and that's not even thinking of the times I've had to sneak around at Hogwarts. Yuura said it himself, its only people who get caught that 'don't deserve to be here'. And he told us to show him exactly what kind of Shinobi we are._

_Of course,_ Harry almost chuckled, resting his forehead on his fingers a moment. _This has to be the twist, the one that Kabuto mentioned before. I doubt that the door thing is the twist anyway. They want to see our information gathering skills. The stupidly ridiculous questions, the fact that you get four chances despite the number of watchers that are everywhere – t all points to the fact they want us to cheat to get the answers, and so to pick the correct door. But that has to mean that there are some people in this crowd who know the answers themselves. It might just be a handful of clever people in this group, or there could even be plants in the participants that know the answers. _

He quickly scanned around the students from between his fingers. Kabuto seemed to be ok, scribbling away, there was a few others too. There was even the weedy guy next to him that was scribbling away.

The easiest person to get the starting answers from would be the one nearest to him, though he didn't want to make it too obvious. Closing his eyes a moment, he activated his Sharingan. After all, it was practically the ultimate cheat tool. Making it seem like he was only sweeping his eyes towards the watchers, he mentally imprinted the start answers in his head. Canning around a moment longer at the watchers, making his expression seem like one of worry for what to do about the questions, he then looked down, resting his forehead on his hand and looked through his fingers towards Kabuto, following his arm movements to copy down the latter answers.

It was difficult. He'd never used his Sharingan to copy written tests before. The only time he had tried to copy something written was when he copied Anko's map of the Forest of death. He wasn't sure if he got at least one mark that he had been cheating, but he knew that other than perhaps glancing over in the direction of the one next to him, but he knew at least that he hadn't used up all his chances.

It seemed others had started to work out what was going on too. Harry could see Hana's dog's making a soft yip every now and then and Harry had a feeling that they were spying for her. There was other people too trying out various tactics of spying, some more successful than others

It was about half way through the test time that Harry froze as a Kunai shot passed his cheek and landed with a dull 'thunk' on the row just behind him. He swallowed slightly, but realised it hadn't been aimed at him, but rather at a ninja sitting on the last row that was behind him. The Genin behind him squawked and practically fell back off his chair.

"Enough chances for you," one of the Watchers said and Harry immediately knew that that person was the one who threw it. "You got caught. You and your team mates can leave now – you failed the test."

"What! Failed!" the Genin complained. "But I didn't do anything!"

"Enough whining. Give it up and leave," the Chunin growled. "You and your team mates. Now."

Two ninja (they appeared to be from Iwagakure) got up, one sitting near the front, the other from somewhere in the middle got up, faces grim as they began to leave, shooting practically murderous looks at their team mate who had been caught. He heard a heavy swallowing from said person as they reluctantly left the room.

After that, people from all the different villages started dropping like flies, either because they were so unnerved by what had just happened to concentrate fully, or because they had become careless. About ten more teams were disqualified in the next fifteen minutes alone, and it was still counting. Thankfully, by this time, Harry had copied the answers he needed from those who had seemed confident in their answers and did his best to ignore the calling out of seat numbers as several more people were failing, trying his best to figure out some kind of code ahead of the time they would be given to actually look it over, but he couldn't really see any correlations just yet. He was beginning to wonder if there was even a code there sat all. Had he cheated off the wrong people? He doubted it, but…

There had to be something here. But what?

He wished they had been given more paper so he could jot down ideas too, but he doubted that they would make it that easy for them, unfortunately.

Finally, the last fifteen minute finally ticking away (and another six teams forced to leave), Yuura spoke up. "Times up for the written test. Pens down. It's now time for the last part of the exam."

There was a clatter of pens and a few whimpers that Harry was sure he heard as well. Not that Harry could blame them. Even if they got the answers right, the code didn't seem to make all that much sense at all that Harry could decipher.

"Now, to let you know a little more about the final part of this part of the exam," Yuura said. "You will be given an extra half an hour to try and decipher the codes that you have. During this time, some of the watchers may pull some of you aside, as a quality control and for records on the examination process. Unless you start to confer with your team mates during this time, you won't need to worry about these checks. However, even if you are chosen, you will have to pick a door. If your team mate picks the wrong door, the entire team will. Names will be called out, and that person must choose a door, the rest of the team must follow no matter what. So just hope that all of you have all the right answers. Pick the wrong door, and you may find yourself in….quite the predicament. And of course, if you die or get seriously maimed because of a bad choice, then you won't be able to try again."

The nerves still playing at practically everyone that was still waiting in the room seemed to spike higher at that last sentence. Harry clicked his tongue in annoyance and bit on the end of his thumb again thoughtfully.

_So even if one of us does know the coding, because any of our names could get called up and the rest of us have to follow the decision, if one of us got it wrong and is picked, we would all fail. And that's not even considering what might lie beyond the wrong doors… _For some reason, Harry could only remember Fluffy from his first year at Hogwarts waiting behind the door on the third floor corridor. He could only hope it wouldn't be something like that, especially when he hadn't brought his flute with him. His frown deepened. _Dammit, and you aren't even allowed to confer with the other members of your team either. Talk about cutting down the competition…_

"If, at the end of the thirty minutes, you don't feel confident enough to risk the dangers that might be ahead, you may quit and try another year, as there are other proctors that are nicer than I and wont place you in such dangerous situations. You may be allowed to leave along with your team mates unharmed to try again next time. After the thirty minutes is up, I will be allowing you the chance to do so. But until then, you may still be thrown out of the exam for conferring. So…begin."

_This really is one of the most screwed up written tests that I've ever had, _Harry couldn't help but think fervently_._

However, he only had thirty minutes to work out this code, not to mention that there were those quality control checks that would he happening, so he shook off those thoughts and looked over his answers once more, trying to decipher exactly what the code could be. He doubted that there would be a change in languages here, since very few people knew any other language apart from the Japanese that everyone spoke in the hidden continent. Perhaps a switch around in words? Or maybe it was the kanji needed to be rearranged somehow?

However, before Harry could really start to do any changes to the answers, either to attempt to rearrange them, or to do any other trick, he was tapped on the shoulder. Tensing, Harry clanked around to see one of the Chunin watchers standing over him.

"Hey, hey, no need to get jumpy," the Chunin said, patting his shoulder. "Just doing quality control. Bring your sheet with you and come with me, please."

Wondering exactly what this 'quality control' was actually going to entail, Harry swallowed, but got up and followed the Chunin into another room off from the main one. It was a small, office like room, probably used for teachers in regular circumstances, but for now it appeared that it was where some of these 'quality controls' would be held. He doubted all of them would be in this one room though. He'd seen quite a few of the Chunin pass by with some of the Genin at the same time while he'd been trying to think what to do. The Chunin himself sat down on the desk even as Harry stood awkwardly in front of him, wondering exactly what was going to happen.

"So what do you need to do exactly," Harry said finally.

"Just checking the papers, nothing to worry about, kid," the Chunin smiled, holding out his hand for the paper, which Harry reluctantly handed over. The Chunin scanned over his answers, leaving Harry to stand in awkward silence for a while. He resisted the urge to shuffle and crossed his arms, face set stonily, waiting for whatever verdict that the Chunin would come to.

Finally, after a long moment, the Chunin handed the paper back.

"Well?" Harry asked. He'd been expecting at least a 'That's ok, I'll take you back now' or at least some comment or another.

"Oh, it's fine," the Chunin said with a smile. "There weren't mistakes on the questions and the answers look fine. Though you seemed to be struggling a little with the code."

"Everyone's struggling a bit on the code," Harry snorted. "Could I go back now? I only have so long before the time's up on deciphering the code and everything."

"Actually, before you go, I have a proposition for you."

Harry cocked a brow slightly. "Proposition…?"

The smile didn't change at all on the Chunin's face. "Yes, a proposition. You see, the exam is extremely difficult, and they're making it so it's completely unfair to those from other villages. After all, they want to get more Chunin in Suna, and the less people who get promoted to Chunin in other villages also helps to cut the 'competition'." He looked away at that, his face twisting with disgust. "It's unfair. There's so much talent here, you know? And I've been watching everyone in this exam, and I have to say you're impressive. I like you, kid; you have a fire in your eyes. I want to help you. I know you've got the potential to be a great Chunin."

Harry felt his breath hitch slightly at that. This ninja wanted to help him out? Because he liked the fire in his eyes? Harry wasn't sure if he should be flattered or disturbed. But at the same time, the edges of suspicion gnawed at him. "Help me? Help me how?"

"Well, that's where the proposition comes in," the Chunin said. "I can tell you a way of being able to pass without having to worry that your team mates will let you down. I can help to rig it that the person picking the door will be you, and I can give you the code so that you can pick the correct door. If I can't do that, I can at least make it so that out of your team, you, at least, will pass."

That uncomfortable feeling increased in his stomach even as he frowned. "Why would you want to do that for someone who's not even part of your village?" he demanded quietly. He highly doubted that the Suna Chunin was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. "What's in it for you?"

"Well," the Suna ninja said. "Just a little….favour is all. Nothing you need to worry about yet, though, but I'd get in touch with you if I want the favour repaying."

"What kind of 'favour'," The Uchiha said suspiciously. Honestly, he really was getting rather bad vibes from this conversation. Surely the Suna ninja wasn't honestly thinking what he thought he was thinking, right?"

"Oh, don't look like that," the Suna ninja waved it off. "Think about it, you get to become a Chunin, your team mates wont hold you back, and all in exchange for a little favour. It wouldn't be much, just payment in kind – a little information in return."

"So let me get this straight," Harry said sharply. "You'll help me pass, regardless of whatever happens to my team mates, and you'll want information in return. What about?" he saw the ninja sweep his eyes towards his forehead. For a moment, he thought he was thinking about all the 'Harry Potter' things from the Wizarding world. Whenever people worked out who he was there, they would always look to his forehead (though often be disappointed when his headband covered the scar). But he shook it off. He doubted any ninja apart from maybe the Sandaime and his brothers knew about his past.

No, what the man must have been looking at was the headband himself. Harry carefully lifted a hand, tracing the carved stylised leaf shape on the slightly scratched metal. "You mean…information on Konoha?"

"It's a fair trade."

Suspicion quickly changed to cold anger.

"No its not!" Harry bit out furiously. "If you wanted information about Konoha, you should have asked someone else. I'd rather risk failing this time, then end up passing and betraying my village. I hate people like you, who think its ok to just throw things important things aside, just because it might get me a promotion." He added in disgust. He hated traitors with a passion ever since Itachi, even if it was only implied, like when Lockhart tried to run away from his duty and abandon Ginny to her death. To even have someone have the gall to imply that Harry should give up who knew what kind of information from Konoha…

"But what if one of your team mates gets picked and they choose wrong?" The Chunin insisted.

"Well, it looks like we'd just have to deal with whatever comes our way together," Harry said, snatching his paper back. "Konoha ninja don't abandon their team mates, and I wouldn't become the kind of trash that would leave them in trouble just so I can become a Chunin. More importantly, I wouldn't betray my home and my family just so I can get a promotion."

"But-"

"Go bother someone else about it. It's their choice, but leave me out of it," Harry said coldly. "I'm done here. I'm going back to the test room and going to work out this code myself."

With that, still silently fuming, Harry turned on his heel and stalked right back to the room. Honestly, the nerve of that guy! Trying to make him give up information about Konoha. If he had been expecting Harry to agree to such terms, well, that Chunin obviously didn't do his homework when he picked him out of all the Konoha Genin.

It appeared that he wasn't the only person here returning from their quality control checks, and he rejoined them, entering back into the room and stalked over to his seat, ignoring the quick glance his way from Hana. After all, if he made some kind of movement Yuura or the watchers might consider that as some kind of coded message and while Harry had refused that watcher's help, it didn't mean that he wanted to get them disqualified.

Still, as he sat down to look at the answers to work out the code, his anger abated, and was replaced once more by gnawing worry. After all, because of that damned Chunin, a lot of his time trying to work out the codes had gone, and he barely had ten minutes to even attempt to crack whatever code there was there. He could only hope the others worked something out and were chosen, because if they picked Harry, it was going to have to be complete guess work on his part. They hadn't been informed of the amount of doors they would have to choose between after all, so Harry couldn't even begin to guess what odds he' be working against. But he couldn't give up either. Not when they had got all the way to Suna for these exams. Besides, if they did pick the wrong door, well, he, Hana and Kabuto had dealt with the Forest of death, so he was sure they could get out of whatever problem they might face and try again next time. Still, he really wanted to be able to return to Konoha a Chunin.

Still, it seemed as though someone had tampered with the clocks, as Harry had still found out nothing at all by the time that Yuura stood up and called for their attention.

"Time is up."

Harry smacked his head against the table and cursed. He wished that in all the time he had had at Hogwarts he could have had some form of time travel spell he could have used so he could have got back the time lost because of that Chunin trying to get him to give up Konoha information. If he failed because of him, the first thing he was going to do (once he fully figured it out) was to summon the Basilisk and set it on him for causing them to fail.

Harry wasn't the only one either. Their was a faint hiss around the room made up of groans and panicked whispers.

_Well, at least I'm not the only person with a problem about this part of the exam…_ Harry thought bitterly, once again vowing to have the Basilisk kill that Chunin for this.

"Whether or not you are ready, the time to try to break the code is done," Yuura continued. "The time has come to place your lives on the line to follow through whatever consequences you might have for your decisions. However, unlike in the real world, I will give you a chance. If you feel that you are not prepared enough to take the risks, and possibly come face to face with death, then you may back out now, and try again another time. There will be no shame in that. Remember that the whole team must back out, however, so choose wisely. Stay in the exam and possibly risk your lives, or back out and try again next year."

For a moment, silence rained in the hall and Harry wondered if anyone was going to quit at all. Finally, a shaky hand rose.

"I'm sorry, Fuuto, Yutaka…I can't go through with it. If I get picked, we'll just end up…So…I quit,"

"Very well," Yuura nodded. "You and your team may leave."

"I quit as well."

Once the first team had left, it seemed that other people felt more comfortable to leave as well. Harry could only guess that they hadn't wanted to make the first move and seem extremely weak in front of the many other Genin. For a brief moment, as Harry looked down at his paper blankly, he wondered if he should quit too, before he scoffed at the very idea. He was Uchiha-Potter Harry. He never just gave up on anything. Not facing trials to get the philosopher's stone, not against Anko's tests in the Forest of Death, not against the Ninja Yakuza leader in Swamp country and not even against Tom Riddle and the Basilisk. Harry was not a quitter in the face of danger, and he wasn't going to start now. His team, also, seemed like they were not going to do so either.

Besides, Harry learned, especially in his fights and raining with his teacher that a Ninja will not gain anything without risking their very lives for it. How could Harry even consider himself a Chunin if he didn't give his all for it?

In the end, it appeared that about seven more teams had left the exam, but after that, the rest either sat there in stony silence, or some sat confidently – he could only assume that they had worked out the code.

Once more he cursed that damned Chunin and his 'quality control' checks.

"Last chance," Yuura said. But once more, everyone else stayed silent and he nodded. "Very well then. We shall continue the last part of the first exam. Now that you have had time to work through the codes, one member of your teams will be called up to enter the next room where the doors you must choose between lie in wait. There, under the eye of some of the watchers, you must choose the door. If your choice is the correct one, you will pass and move to the next stage of the exam. If your choice is wrong, then you will fail the exam, if you survive your choice, that is. Whatever the named Genin chooses, the rest of the team must follow."

With that, he held out a hand again, and one of the Chunin stepped forward and handed him a list, likely a list of all the Genin and teams that were still in the Chunin exam. Despite the mount of people that had left, there were still quite a few teams left.

Thanking the Chunin, Yuura looked back to the group once more. "When I call out your candidate number, the person whose number is called and their team members will pass onto the next room, where they will make their choices." He looked onto the list. "Number Five." He called out.

A ninja from Taki got up, followed by his team members, and headed through the door towards the next room, looking confident.

Once they had disappeared through the door and the door was closed, Yuura called out the next number. "Number Sixteen."

As the numbers were called, Harry noticed that the numbers didn't seem to be in any particular order, and even skipped over a few numbers that Harry was expecting. Numbers six through fifteen, for example, were skipped. And there was at least one full team in those numbers who had not actually been disqualified or quit. If a number that represented a team member was supposed to be called out, why skip over a team completely.

_Maybe I'm thinking too hard on this, or that Chunin trying to trick me before made me paranoid…but I seriously think I'm missing something here…_

Still, some teams still headed through the door. From what Harry could estimate as well, Kabuto and Hana's numbers were also missed out, as well as several others also. Eventually, even Harry's number was completely missed too. It seemed that the other members of his team, and some from other villages also seemed to be picking up on the odd calling out of numbers.

_What's going on…?_ Harry blinked, tightening his hands into fists on his knees. _Wait, does it mean that only people who pass are going through those doors? If that's true then….did we miss something? Has our team failed already?_

He quickly thought hard about it. He couldn't think what might have happened to have made them fail. After all, none of the team got four strikes against cheating – hell, Kabuto didn't even cheat, and he was sure that if they had been caught cheating too many times they would have been sent out long before the second part of this first exam. Did they actually want the teams to confer? But no, that didn't seem right, they seemed like disqualification would happen straight away if they were found talking.

Harry ran his hands through his hair. What was he missing? Then again, he couldn't think on much other than that Anko was going to absolutely kill him that he hadn't even got passed the second exam.

_Dammit! What did we even do! _Harry mentally wailed, pressing the heels of his hands against the cool metal of his hitae ate in despair.

Yuura rolled up the paper finally. Though there was still quite a few teams left in the room.

A Suna ninja jumped up, slamming their hands against the table. "Wait a minute!" She snapped. "What about the rest of us! You haven't even called out all the team numbers! What are you playing at!"

"Yeah!" a Kiri ninja added harshly. "What's up with that! You can't just leave the rest of us hanging! What are we supposed to be doing?"

"Have we failed?" asked someone from behind Harry.

"What's going on now then," a Kumo ninja complained.

"Quieten down," Yuura said calmly, handing the paper back to the Chunin who had given it to him before. "I'm about to explain now, so if you don't mind staying silent so I can continue."

The complaints changed to grumbles before turning to silence once more.

"Good," Yuura nodded. "Now, I have some things to say you those of you who are still sitting here." He looked them over, before his small mouth curled upwards into a smile. "Congratulations. You all pass."

Harry's head jerked up from where he had rested his head in his hands. "Uh…what…?"

"Wait," Hana blinked, looking just about as gob smacked as the rest of the Genin there. "You said that we would have to choose between doors and work out a code to pick the right door. What do you mean we pass?"

"The test about choosing the right door was a metaphor," Yuura said calmly. "I'll explain this in a moment. However, first I'll explain the reasoning behind this test in the first place. The idea, or rather, _ideas_ behind this test number three in total." He held up a hand and held up his index finger. "The first was the actual written test itself. As many of you are probably aware, the idea behind this was, in fact, to cheat, though the idea was also not to get caught, which was why those who did get caught four times were disqualified. In the ninja world, you may be forced on missions to gather information without getting caught. Amongst the people here, some of them were actually plants, Chunin who were posing as Genin for you to cheat from. Not that they would make it completely obvious for you either. As ninja, you must sometimes take risks to gather the correct information, and even then it might have been false. This part of the test not only proves your subtlety in being able to gather the information, but also tests your ability to do so. If you can't spy information from others, to cheat without being caught, then its better not to cheat at all."

_So….it was what we expected once we worked out that we needed to cheat,_ Harry noted. _Well, I get that. It was kind of obvious. But what about this second and third parts to this that he's talking about?_

Yuura held up another finger. "The second part of this test was actually within the Quality Control examinations during the time that you needed to work out the 'codes' to pick the correct 'door'. A member of the teams, as told, was selected to be taken aside to have checks done on their test papers. However, this was a ruse to be able to take a person aside and give them a proposition, to enable help in exchange for something, be it a favour, information, anything like that. In reality, the code itself does not exist in the papers, and this was actually to there to make the Genin chosen desperate enough to consider the offer. However, if the offer was taken up, those ninja, and as such, their team would fail. The 'help' that would be offered was often that, no matter what, that one person at least would pass even if the others fail. This is not so. All of you came here today in teams of three. And as in the rest of the test where if one fails, the whole team fails, it is the same that one person in a team cannot pass alone either. This part of your test tested your loyalty. Loyalty to your village and to your team is one of the most important things as ninja. This part of the test also tested your ability to look underneath the underneath, and see the deception there as well. As such, your entire team relied on the choice of one person.

"For those of you who were here and did not get taken aside, you unknowingly placed your trust in a 'team leader'. You will sometimes have missions where you will need to follow through with a leader, even if the decisions may seem questionable, there may be something more to them. Chunin will sometimes work in a team and a leader will be chosen. Trust in your team mates is something that is essential to those missions. For those who were tested by the Chunin watchers, you had the choice, either to abandon your team for your own gain, or remain with them. Not only that, you needed to see through the deception presented to you by the Chunin themselves here. As a 'team leader' you may be forced to lead through missions where not all is as it seems, and once more, trust is needed in those followers, who were also counting on you to lead them through, and not to abandon them. As said, loyalty to your villages is also paramount n this as well, as there will be times such 'exchanges of information' may be offered. However, you must way what you may gain from the information, and what it might cost you. Is it something you can truly afford in the long run? Quite literally a 'Quality control' – quality as to the loyalty of the ninja here, loyalty to their team and their own village, as well as the quality of seeing through deception. Those who fell into that trap were the ones who had gone into the next room with their teams. They are currently being told how and why they have failed this test as we speak."

The Jonin held up a third finger. "The last part of this test is much less complex than the second one. A test of your daring. There will be times when you will have no information in a mission, no way of getting that information, but you would be required to follow through with a mission regardless of the lack of information you might have. In this case, since there was no real code, none of you would be able to have found out any information at all about which door would be the right one. As said, the 'doors' were a metaphor, both for choosing whether or not to take the information offered by the Jonin, to remain and face the unknown, or to back out. I have already explained about the idea about the Quality control. One must be able to take risks. If a Chunin does not take risks, take a step into the unknown, then they are not Chunin at all. In real life, one might not have the choice to back out. Behind enemy lines, for example, you only have the choice to press onwards, regardless of lack of information or the glaring unknown. As such, those who left would not be able to be Chunin, until they are prepared to take that step into unknown territory. The final 'door' to choose from, as it were, was to remain loyal to your team mates, while at the same time bracing the unknown. As such, you all pass."

The entire exam's hidden test was both convoluted in the amount of things that they had been tested all in a single written test, yet at the same time, it made a strange amount of sense to him. He couldn't help but feel pride bubble up inside of him that he had actually chosen the right choice - not that, in Harry's mind, there had really been another choice he would have been able to follow, either due to his own pride and inability to give up or due to conscience and loyalty (not to mention distain of all things traitorous). Seeing Hana's happy expression, along with Kabuto's thumbs up to him, as well as the lifting spirits of everyone around him, Harry couldn't help but feel happy with how the exam had gone, even if it had been more nerve-racking than anything he had expected from a written exam.

_I just hope I never have to have such psychoanalysis of a written test ever again though, _Harry couldn't help but think as he offered a grin back to his team mates. _If Hogwarts ever ended up with exams like this, I think I'd end up going mad from it all._

"Once more, congratulations," Yuura said as he looked over the group. "However, don't celebrate too early, as the Chunin exams are not yet over. You have two more exams to come. However, you have a few hours until the next exam to prepare yourselves psychologically if nothing else. Before you leave to do so, however, your proctor for the next exam would like to give you a little bit of information as to what the next test will entail."

There was a poof of smoke and sanding beside Yuura as the smoke cleared was a new ninja that Harry hadn't seen yet. He was fairly tall – taller than Yuura, but with a bald head and pronounced brows that lacked any hair. In fact, the only hair on the man's face was a stubbly moustache and beard. Much like Yuura, he was wearing a standard Jonin outfit for Suna of a flak jacket in dark tan and dark brown turtle-neck shirt and trousers. He stood before them, his piercing eyes looking them over before a grin spread across his face.

"So, guess these are the ones I'm left with, huh? Still quite a few, but by the time I'm done with them we'll have definitely cut down the stragglers," the man said gruffly, still grinning darkly. "I'm Satetsu, and I'll be your proctor for the second exam. But don't get all complacent now, you won't be getting some cheapskate written test. This time, don't expect it to be so safe. Get yourselves ready and get those asses moving down to training ground thirteen. You lucky brats get to deal with the Valley of Illusion."

Despite it having a much less threatening name that the Forest of Death, Harry was seriously getting a bad feeling about what the second test would be like. Considering what Kabuto said about the test layouts, Harry was certainly expecting that 'Survival' was going to be a high priority here.

_Bet you Anko would love this…_ the Uchiha grimaced at the thought. _Joy…_

**To Be Continued….**

****

_**Translation list**_

_(If not stated here, the translation may have come in a previous chapter)_

_~Kumo – 'Cloud'. A reference to Kumogakure no Sato, aka 'Village Hidden in the Clouds, and is situated in Lightning Country. One of the five great villages that also include Konoha, Kiri, Suna and Iwa. Lead by the Raikage._

_~Iwa – 'Rock'. A reference to Iwagakure no Sato, aka 'Village Hidden in the Rocks' and is situated in Earth Country. One of the five great villages that includes Konoha, Kiri, Suna and Kumo. Lead by the Tsuchikage._

_~Kiri – 'Mist'. A reference to Kirigakure no Sato, aka 'The Village Hidden in the Mist', situated in Water Country. Also known as 'Blood Mist Village' due to its rather bloody history. One of the great five ninja villages that includes Konoha, Kumo, Suna and Iwa. Lead by the Mizukage (Water Shadow)._

_~Kusa – 'Grass'. A reference to Kusagakure aka 'Hidden Grass Village'. Not one of the great five villages and as such is not lead by a Kage, and the village itself has never been seen in the anime or Manga, though it is referenced to and its symbol has appeared on a few ninja in the Narutoverse. However, it is situated between Earth country and Fire Country, in an unnamed country that fans often refer to as Grass Country._

_~Taki – 'Waterfall'. A reference to Takigakure, aka 'Hidden Waterfall Village'. Not one of the great five villages and as such is not lead by a Kage. It has not appeared in the manga (though its symbol is seen on some ninja in he Narutoverse), but in the anime, it is shown, and is apparently lead by a young man named Shibuki. Like Kusa, the country its located in is not named, but is refered to as Waterfall country by fans._

_~Hoshi – 'Star'. A reference to Hoshigakure, aka 'Hidden Star Village, located in the Land of bears. While it never appears in the manga (though its symbol has been seen on some ninja), it appears in the anime. Despite not being one of the main five villages, its leader is refered to as Hoshikage (Star Shadow)._

_~Taichou-chan – 'Little Captain'. Hana and Kabuto's nickname for Harry._

_**Chosha's Notes:**_

_One more chapter done, and it was updated a bit slower than I've been updating recently, mainly because I've caught up to myself where my chapters were concerned (I'd been trying to write ahead of myself, you see), so I'm updating a bit slower, since I actually have to concentrate on writing the whole chapter now just before I update, since I've not got lots of chapters on standby. I'll still be trying to update as soon as I can though, but not once every five days. _

_Also, sorry that it's not quite as long as the others, but I wanted to do the Chunin exams on a chapter per exam type bases (though the third exam might get split up if it gets too long. Anyway, I'm hoping I pulled off the First Exam OK, especially since this Chapter is a dedicated one. I certainly don't want to disappoint. I also hope my explanations work as well for what I meant by the exam. I assumed the format is similar in most Chunin exams, since no one seemed all that surprised by their being three exams and only seemed surprised by the various twists in the Exams and the preliminaries in the anime/manga. It's easier to go on that format than create something entirely different. _

_Now, like I explained, the exam isn't exactly to route out traitors. I'm sure that each person called up was offered different things instead of outright asking. The Chunin with Harry was mainly cut off from trying to convince Harry because Harry really hates traitors. But I think if pushed to a desperate situation, one might consider taking up the offer, even if not offered an exchange, especially since it appeared Cheating was what the whole test was about. Of course, I'm just hoping I didn't confuse anyone._

_Now, about 'Yuura' and 'Satetsu'. Both of these characters are actually Canon Suna Jonin. Yuura having a larger role than Satetsu. Yuura is a Jonin who appears in Shippuden during the Gaara arc, and was one of the Sleeper Agents of Sasori. Yuura was portrayed as a very loyal person, and in Shippuden even helped with the council to improve Suna. Once Sasori's jutsu was lifted, Yuura was also very loyal to Sasori. I just wanted to use him as the first exam mainly for irony's sake, especially when Loyalty to your village and team was one of the lessons of the exam. Satetsu had only a small role as one of the Suna ninja who searched for the body of the fourth Kazekage and became extremely resentful of Orochimaru for tricking them with the Konoha invasion. I'm unsure if he is named in the anime or Manga, but he is given a name on Narutopedia. You can check that site for more info on appearance if you're curious._

_I decided against using Baki, however, mainly because at this point, Temari (who graduated before Harry's second year at Hogwarts) and maybe even Kankuro (who would graduate at some point during this summer) were probably training with him. It says on Narutopedia that all three siblings graduated at 12, but all of them were different ages when they were in the Chunin exams (14-15 for Temari, 13-14 for Kankuro and 12-13 for Gaara) so unless there was some mix-up on the information about their graduation ages, I'd guess that they were made a full team only after they all had graduated the academy. Meaning, like Naruto and Sasuke, Gaara is not yet a full graduated ninja yet. Like I said, I'm going by Narutopedia here, so if my calculations are wrong, blame that. Of course, if you know there is a problem there, please let me know so I can correct my calculations on their ages. Thanks!_

_One last thing, last chapter I thought the katakana of Harry's name was Ha Ru Ri. However, two of my reviewers, **Tea** and **Ganchara** have informed me that Harry in Katakaba is actually Ha Tsu Ri. (Tsu is apparently pronounced as Double R). I thought I should correct that mistake here. Of course, since I only mentioned it in my notes last time I don't have to change the story itself, but I think people would like to know if they were interested. So, Thanks to Tea and Ganchara! The help is most certainly appreciated! _

_So anyway, now the first exam is over, I better start thinking about the second exam. If anyone has anything they'd like to see happen, please tell me. If I use your idea, I will definitely dedicate the chapter to you. _

_Please Reivew!_

_**Preview of the Next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry: **The first exam is over and done with, but we've still got a long way to go. Now we have the next exam – the mission simulated Survival exam at the thirteenth training ground – the Valley of Illusions. Next episode: The Chunin exams: The Second Exam. After the Forest of Death, it shouldn't be too bad….right….?_

_**Until Next Time,**_

_**Ja ne!**_

_**Chosha Kurenai xXx**_


	24. Chapter 23: The Chunin Exam: 2nd Exam

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_The first exam begins and Harry, along with his team, are in a written exam, lead by the Jonin proctor, Yuura. Harry, long with his team, work out cheating needs to be involved. During the second part of the first exam, Harry is taken aside by a Chunin, who says he wishes to 'help' Harry, however, he turned him down due to his dislike of traitors and his loyalty to his village. This turned out to be a correct decision, as it was actually part of the test itself, in order to test the loyalty of the would-be Chunin. Having passed the first exam, Yuura hands the remaining Genin over to Satetsu, who would be leading the second exam at the thirteenth training ground – the Valley of Illusion. _

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Twenty Three**

**The Chunin Exams: The Second Exam**

"Welcome to the thirteenth training grounds – the Valley of Illusion."

Over the crowd of Genin's heads, Harry peered at the arena that the second exam was going to take place in. While the number of the Valley of Illusion didn't have quite the grimacing effect as Konoha's Forest of Death, the thirteenth training ground still looked somewhat formidable in its own right. It was a wide area of desert with very little, if any, shade to duck into out of the baking sun, the very air itself seemed to shimmer with the heat. From their vantage point outside, the grounds were blocked off from entrance by barbed wire gates, electric fences and formidable 'Keep out' signs and thick chains that wrapped around the gates, clinking ominously whenever the hot winds of Suna washed over them. Through the gates and in the distance if the valley below, Harry could see what looked like some kind of building, or like some kind of temple that would have looked at home in one of his History of Magic books.

"Now gather round you lot and listen up, because I'm only going to say this once," Satetsu called to the masses gruffly, cutting off the murmuring going on between the examinees. "If you don't listen and end up screwing up in this exam then it'll be your own faults."

That cut off any conversation that hadn't tapered off once the Jonin had started to speak and all eyes were on him. No one wanted to mess up and lose out on the chance to become Chunin after all, all waiting for instruction, though Harry couldn't help but wonder if this exam was going to have some kind of hidden test to it, like the first one had.

"Alright, brats," Satetsu said once he was sure he had everyone's undivided attention. "This is your second exam, and if you all thought all you were going to do was pencil pushing the entire time then think again. The second exam is a mission simulation based in the Valley of Illusion. To pass the test, you need to successfully complete the mission assigned to you."

"That sounds kind of easy," murmured a voice from someone close by, though Harry wasn't sure who. However, the voice either carried more than the person thought, or Satetsu had better hearing than the all thought, because the Suna Jonin laughed. Not a nice laugh, but more like Anko's laugh when she knew that she was going to get to torture someone. Either way, Harry could practically feel the genin jump a mile.

"Saying and doing are two different things, boy," Satetsu chuckled, before his face became more serious. "Its thinking like that that can get you killed here. This isn't a safe test – people have died during the second exam, in every single second exam, no matter which village has set it up," He ignored the nervous glances that the crowds began to give each other, or the bloodthirsty ones from other genin, instead he flicked some papers in their direction. "These here are disclaimer forms, basically saying if you do something stupid and die in there, its your own responsibility. Filling out paperwork because some of you kids decided to be idiots is pretty annoying after all. Now, while these are handed out, I'll tell you what you need to do to pass this exam. If you decide you can handle it, sign the form. If you don't…well, you already had your chance to drop out, so you're just going to have to suck it up and sign the damned form anyway."

"Wow, harsh much?" Hana frowned as some of the Genin shivered slightly.

"It's been like that every time," Kabuto explained as the forms were passed out and he took three of them for his team, passing two of them to Hana and Harry. "The proctors for the second exam always seem to be the most….well…"

"Sadistic?" Harry suggested dryly as he took one of the disclaimers and skimmed over it (it looked remarkably like the one he had to sign for the Forest of Death when he had his Genin test with Anko, now that he thought about it).

Kabuto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, yeah, pretty much." He agreed.

"Must be a 'Birds of a Feather' thing," Hana suggested with a shrug.

"Now, since you've all got your disclaimers, I'll tell you your objectives. You will be looking for three pieces of an amulet," the Jonin said, lifting up what looked like a circular seal, where three pieces seemed to slot together to make the amulet in question, about a hand span in diameter. "You will all begin with a third of this amulet. You need to collect two more pieces from the valley itself. One piece you need to find from the obstacles that are in the valley itself. The last third you will need to get from another team. Once you have all the pieces and completed the amulet, you need to make your way to the building at the other side of the desert. However, you will only be able to enter if that seal is complete." A smirk crossed Satetsu's face. "As I'm sure you may have already worked out, there is a limited amount of seal pieces and that means, at best, only half of you are going to pass this test. The other half of you will just have to try again next year. Well, if you're alive, that is." He added with a sly, toothy grin.

"Now, one last thing to go over before we let you loose – the rules," the Jonin continued after noting the effect of his words. "Failure to follow those rules will have you disqualified, got it? Rule number one! You have three days to get a complete amulet and enter the building at the other end of the Valley. If you don't get there by midnight on the third day, you fail. Rule number two! You can only use what you have with you now and what is supplied to you before you enter. Once your in, you stay in. No nipping out to grab some more water from the store. If you leave, don't bother trying to enter again to continue the exam. Rule number three! You need all three team members with you if you do manage to get a complete amulet. If you lost a team mate, they were killed or disqualified, then the whole team fails. Lastly, no hording on other amulet pieces. You get three and you go to the building. If you collect more than three and keep them to yourself…well…" once more, the man grinned, but he let the sentence hang ominously. "You've got about half an hour to prepare before you go in, so start signing those forms and get your amulet pieces and supplies from the people in the tents kiddies.

"Maybe we should introduce Anko-sensei to that guy," Harry snorted as the team made its way over to a spot away from the mass of ninja so they could read over their forms and sign in peace. "Seems like they'd get on really well."

"I wonder what would happen if you did hoard the amulet parts," Hana said thoughtfully as she scratched the chin of one of her nin-dogs absently, her eyes scanning the text.

"Bet someone'll try to do it anyway," Harry said. He was sure there would be people who would do that back at Hogwarts if they had to do such a test – a few Slytherins came to mind. But even then, at Hogwarts there were still people who tried to cheat at tests despite the fact that they had to use an anti-cheating quill.

"No betting on it, someone will," Kabuto agreed, sighing as if he would really rather not go into the training area at all, but reluctantly signed the sheet anyway. "That's just how some ninja work."

"But here's a question," Harry continued, a frown furrowing his forehead. "How do they even know if someone is hoarding?" He waved his hand at the valley below. "I mean, there's a hell of a lot of open space down there, sure, but they can't honestly be able to keep an eye on everything all at once even with that. Do you think they have warning sensors or they bug the parts or something?"

"There could be mini cameras hidden in the sand," Hana suggested.

"I'm more worried about how we'll deal with three days in that," Kabuto muttered worriedly, eyeing the Valley of Illusion's entrance. "I doubt there's going to be much food or water in there. We'll literally have to survive on whatever they give us before we go in."

Harry shrugged. "There's not much we can do about it," he pointed out to his team mates, "You heard the rules. Its not like we can nip off to the store or something in the middle of the test to get new supplies, so we'll have to just ration what we have."

Well, not exactly, at least where water was concerned, since Harry could use an Aquamenti charm that could create a spout of water to refill the flasks if push came to shove, though it was probably best to use that only in an emergency, especially considering he wanted to keep his magic to himself if he could. But still, telling them about it would be a small price to pay if it stopped them from dying of dehydration or something.

"Can't we just quit now?" Kabuto asked sheepishly, only to end up in a heap on the ground, twitching, when the fists of his team mates collided with the top of his head.

"NO!"

The Haimaru brothers made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snigger.

"Alright, alright," Kabuto managed to get out weakly as he rubbed his head, wincing when his hand touched the lumps from the twin fists that had descended on him in righteous fury. "I was just asking."

"That's enough time for form signing, kiddies," the proctor called over the buzzing of chatter, clapping his hands together to get their attention. "Take your completed forms to the tents. There, you will be given supplies to take with you into the Valley, and you will also receive your third of the Amulet. No dawdling either. We don't have all day after all, especially considering you only have three to get this mission on the road, including today. The faster we get things sorted, the more time you get for the test!"

This soon had people moving. Considering the majority of the test was likely going to be looking for the pieces they needed, the more time they had, the better. The Konoha team quickly got in line behind what looked like an irritable Kiri team that were grumbling about the lack of water – they would definitely be at a disadvantage in the desert, considering most water jutsu seemed to require some form of water to be utilised unless they had some weird water-based bloodline, at least as far as Harry knew. Behind them was a Suna team, who seemed pretty ok with the idea of spending a long time in the desert. Not that Harry could blame them for their confidence – this was pretty much home turf for them, and considering they lived in the desert, the intense heat of the day probably wouldn't bother them that much. The line was fairly slow, but eventually, Harry, Kabuto and Hana finally made it to the front of the line, where a dower, bored looking ninja wearing the uniform all those who were helping out the proctors of the exam was sitting. He didn't say much, merely held out his hand for their papers, which Kabuto handed over. The man looked them over, inspecting for any mistakes before nodding and reaching into what looked like a box, pulling out a third of the amulet they were going to be piecing together, and reached into another box that had three bags, which he handed to them, before shooing them off to deal with the next team. The only words the guy even said to them was to tell them which gate they would be starting from – like the Forest of Death, it seemed the Valley of Illusion had several points of entry.

Once they had moved to the side to a semi-shaded spot, Harry opened his bag to take a look. There was two large flasks that seemed to fill either side of the pack and what looked like a few ration bars, but that was about it. Harry winced a little. They would really have to be careful with how much water they drank in there. After all, a person could go a week without food, but they could only go a couple of days without water – less, even, considering the intense heat that made a desert's day time, coupled with the fact that they would have to actively be moving about in that heat. Then there was the fact that the water would not be shared for three days between three people – they also had the Haimaru brothers to think about as well. The idea of using Aquamenti seemed a more and more likely possibility.

"Do you think this'll last us the time we're in there for?" Hana asked, dubiously, eyeing the meagre supplies.

"If we're careful," Kabuto hummed, pushing up his glasses, though the sun glare on them made it impossible to know what the grey-haired boy was thinking. "We'll have to be very careful in how much we use. I know the water seems like a lot right now, but in there, where there isn't a place to fill it up unless there's a hidden oasis or something, it'll run out very quickly if we don't keep an eye on things."

"I have something that might help out if we do get low," Harry admitted finally. As he had thought before, admitting his magical ability was far more preferable to dying of dehydration, especially after everything that had occurred. "But I'd rather not rely on that if we don't have to," he shrugged, and cast them one of his patent boyish grins. "On the plus side, if we're lucky, we might not even be stuck in there the whole of the three days, so we might not have to worry too much at all."

"That's true," Hana smiled, "Though it's best not to rely on luck."

"Too right," Harry chuckled. "I know my luck can be very fickle."

"Well, like I said, so long as we're careful, it should be ok," Kabuto said. "Onto another matter, who's going to look after the amulet part?"

"Um…." The three of them looked at each other for a moment, before Harry pipped up, sheepishly, "Janken, anyone?"

The three looked at each other, before nodding, fists out ready to play.

As it was, Hana ended up winning their impromptu game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, not that Harry was that disappointed. In fact he was almost happy at the result once he thought it over a little. Out of all of them, Hana always had the most protection with her – the good thing about having three dog partners. If they did get attacked at all for their piece (or pieces) of amulet at any point, Harry and Kabuto would be able to take care of anyone that attacked, and Hana could easily direct the dogs. They would probably pick up the scent of any attackers too, if Harry didn't spot them with his Sharingan. Thus, they decided to just play the one game, rather than best two out of three. It made more sense anyway, considering that, knowing their luck, they'd all win a game each.

"Besides," Harry rationalised when they decided that they didn't need to play Janken again, "Once we have other pieces, we could always spread them between us, just in case one of us gets caught off guard, so we don't lose all of them because they were all kept in one place, right?"

"And time is up!" Satetsu called over the many heads. "Get yourselves over to your assigned gates. When you hear the signal, you'll enter the valley. No hanging around, all that'll do is clutter the gateways. Come on, move it."

"Here goes…" Harry murmured as he followed his team mates to one of the gates, number four, where one of the uniformed ninja stood, one hand on the chained gates, the locks and chains from the gate currently draped over his arms. He watched them carefully with dark eyes as the trio stood side by side, waiting for the signal to start. Harry could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the dispersing crowds seeming oddly silent, as if they were all collectively holding their breaths, waiting for the signal to begin, and to enter what would be three days in some form of hell.

"Ready!" Satetsu's voice called over the grounds. "Set…Go!"

The sound of some kind of whistle or horn washed over them as the uniformed ninja swung the gate open, and in a blur, the team darted into the Valley. After all, the sooner they found what they were after, the sooner they could get into the building at the other end.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

About half an hour or so into the desert training area, the team hit their first snag. Or rather, several snags. That was to say, the atmosphere of the desert itself. Harry hadn't been wrong when he had considered that the shimmering of the desert had to be heat coming up from the sand itself. The sand was burning hot every time that it got caught in their sandals or washed over their uncovered toes. The pure heat that came up from the ground only served to make them sweat faster, and Harry was already sure he was going to end up with sunburn on all areas of exposed skin from the sun beating down on them. The wind that blew through now and then didn't help much either, as all it did was move hot air around, doing little to cool their sweaty skin and did more to just wash sand over them to leave them feeling gritty and irritable. The ones that seemed to be suffering the most were the canines of the group, who trailed after them with tongues hanging out and panting heavily in the heat. Harry could only hope that they wouldn't be forced to carry the animals over their shoulders or something. He was already having enough problems keeping his collar from filling with sand and burying him from the neck up or something.

It also didn't take long for them to realise exactly why the place was called the 'Valley of Illusion'. Even with the wind, the flurry of sand in the air and the intense heat made the sand seem to shift in a disorientating manner, and the heat was enough to make even the best of them start to get a little sun-touched. As they walked, Harry had witnessed several other teams, some who walked passed as if they didn't even see them in the distance, while he was sure he had seen another looking as if they had seen something that the other two members of their team hadn't. Even their own team wasn't immune. After the second or third time that one of them had been subject to a mirage, Harry was really starting to prefer the Forest of Death over the Valley of Illusion any day of the week. At least in the Forest of Death there was cool shade. And shelter. And rivers. Even if the forest itself was filled with giant bugs and reptiles.

Speaking of Giant bugs and reptiles. While they were searching, Harry had been certain he had seen some kind of sidewinders, though they seemed to vanish in the sands when he had turned to look, and he was also sure he had seen a scorpion once too. So far they seemed normal sized, but he wasn't sure if that was because there was a large amount of distance that the valley managed to mask or not.

To make matters worse, about a couple of hours of fruitless searching, Kabuto spotted what looked like a gathering haze in the distance as the wind began to pick up, kicking up sand into clouds around them, seeming to grow thicker and thicker as it came towards them.

"We need shelter, otherwise that sand'll burry us alive," Hana called over the wind as the Haimaru brothers whimpered next to her, huddling closer protectively.

Either that or strip the skin off their bones, Harry couldn't help but think. His skin already felt tender, and the wind currently felt like sandpaper against his skin even without the thick clouds that were coming their way. Quickly, protecting his eyes, he looked around quickly, risking activating his Sharingan, if only to see through all the sand for some form of shelter in the desert. As it was, it seemed that Harry's strange brand of luck had come through for them, as his eyes spotted what looked like some kind of cave entrance of some kind. Praying that it wasn't some form of trap or something, Harry quickly waved to the others to get their attention. After all, he'd rather deal with some form of trap than be skinned alive by a sandstorm.

"This way!" he yelled, scrambling over the sand and darted into the cave, followed by the three dogs, Hana and Kabuto. Hearing the wind howling outside, Harry and Kabuto did their best to cover the cave with a blanket that Hana had found near the bottom of their packs and somehow managed to hook it around the cave entrance by impaling a few Kunai through the rocky surfaces. If it hadn't been some form of sand stone, Harry doubted they would have managed it at all. The cloth shuddered violently, but the kunai and the blanket held, thankfully.

With a slight sigh, Harry flopped down against the cave wall, pressing his back against the stone, sighing slightly in relief as it seemed to cool his already pinking skin. Though soon the cave was full of protests as the dogs shook off their fur, raining sand all over them.

"I hate this place," Harry grumbled as Kabuto was busy trying to get sand from his glasses, but did give a sheepish, but agreeable look in return. "I'd rather go through the Forest of Death again."

"Hey," Hana, who appeared to have been more interested in the cave itself, called back to them as she looked into the cave a bit more, one hand resting on the walls as she sniffed a little. Inuzuka had a great sense of smell, much like the dogs they teamed up with after all. "I think this place goes really far back. I'm sure I can recognise a scent similar to the one that's on the amulet shard."

Harry sat up rather quickly at that. "You mean that we stumbled on one of the places that the proctor was talking about?" He asked, incredulously. "One of the obstacles for a piece is through here?" No way they were that lucky!

"Is it safe to rest in here then?" Kabuto asked dubiously, eyeing the darker areas of the cave that disappeared out of sight as if expecting a Forest of Death tiger to jump out and try to eat them or something.

"It should be," Hana said, though Harry could hear a slightly uncertain lilt in her voice. "But we need to be here anyway if we're going to get one of the shards anyway. You heard what the Proctor said. We have to get a shard from an obstacle, and one from another team."

"Well, lets catch our breaths, make some form of torch and then we can have a look around and see what we're going to be up against," Harry suggested as he rubbed one of his shoulders, wincing a little as he brushed a little sunburn on his neck. Maybe he should ask Kabuto, see if the medic-nin actually had some form of jutsu that could ease off sunburn. He couldn't help but curse his overly sun-sensitive Uchiha skin.

Making up a torch was easier said than done, however. Apart from the blanket that was currently shielding them from becoming flayed by the sand outside, they really had nothing to burn, and they didn't have any wood or anything to tie cloth onto even if they did have the flammable materials available anyway.

The Uchiha sighed, his fingers brushing the wand that sat in his pouch. He really hadn't wanted to bring up that side of his abilities so soon, but if they wanted to pass this exam at all, they were going to need to be able to see. Sue, Harry had been training with Anko in order to not have to rely on his eyes, but Hana and Kabuto had not had that additional training. Not to mention that it was a cave. Who knew how uneven the floor was, how many pitfalls or traps there could be. He wasn't going to fail, or accidentally get himself or another of his team hurt, even killed, just because he childishly wanted to keep magic secret from his team mates.

"Move over," Harry said as he strode forwards, pulling out his wand, "Lumos."

The tip of his wand lit up, bathing them in a soft, white light.

Cautiously, Harry raised his wand a little, trying to bathe a wider area in light, if only so he could look for some form of threats that might be ahead of them. So far, he couldn't see much, except that a path seemed to go deeper underground, though it soon twisted around a corner and vanished from view.

"Come on," he murmured back to the others, who had gone suspiciously quiet since he had cast the spell, warily heading deeper into the cave, watching for anything that may impede them, straining his ears for any sound over the sound of their feet crunching slightly against the sandy stone. After a moment, he heard the others following behind. He could feel their eyes on him, but he ignored it, hoping at least that they would drop the subject before it even came up.

Of course, he couldn't be that lucky.

"What exactly is that?" Hana's voice was painfully curious and Harry couldn't help but wince, knowing that he was going to have to explain. He was well aware that they would ask him more, the more information he gave them too. He really wasn't looking forwards to it.

"What was what?" It didn't mean he wouldn't try to get out of it, though.

"Don't play coy," Hana growled. "What's with the light up stick?"

Harry sighed, shoulders slumping slightly. He really didn't want to talk about this now, but he supposed that he might as well; otherwise they'd never leave him alone. The last thing any of them needed was to end up being distracted when they faced…well, whatever was down the end of this cave.

"It's my wand," he said finally. "My mother had a special ability, and it passed on to me." At least if he said it this way, it would be less confusing to them than say both his parents had the ability, especially when they already knew that Harry had the Sharingan, and was an Uchiha.

"A special ability?" Kabuto asked, his dark eyes narrowed ever so slightly, glinting with interest, though they were soon covered by glasses that he pushed up his nose, the glare of the Lumos glinting off the lenses, hiding his eyes from view. "You mean like…a Kekkei Genkai?"

"…Something like that," Harry shrugged, trying to play it off as something normal, but the scrutiny he was under left him feeling uncomfortable. Even though he was focusing as hard as he could on the direction they were going through the tunnel, he could still feel the tingling feeling of his team mate's eyes, raising the tiny hairs on the back of his neck in warning.

"But I thought the bloodline you have is the Sharingan," Hana's voice sounded highly bemused at this point.

"Well, yes, I do," Harry admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, if only to try and ease the prickly feeling of hair standing on end that made him want to shiver. "You've seen me use it. The thing is, my Okaasan wasn't an Uchiha. She was from the Outside and was born with this power, though her own parents didn't have it, from what I know. I actually only found out I even had it a couple of years ago. I didn't even think it was possible, but I really didn't know anything about my parents until about two or so years ago."

"So what is this power then?" Kabuto asked curiously. "Some form of Mokuton?"

Harry blinked before looking at his wand in disbelief. Mokuton? Well, now that he thought on it, maybe he could understand why he might think it was that, if you really reached for it and tried to put that very round peg into that very square hole. Considering he was using what looked like a stick to everyone who was not familiar with Wizards, they might have thought it was him controlling the wood itself. But honestly, them thinking it was Mokuton would be even more troublesome than them knowing what it was. "Mom wasn't a Senju. And she didn't have water or earth element chakra. She was a civilian, actually, so she couldn't use chakra at all. It's definitely not Mokuton. No, this is Magic."

"Magic,"

Harry turned a little to glance at his team mates, seeing flat looks on both their faces.

"What?" Harry snapped, feeling frustrated at this point. "I'm not lying. And I didn't name this damned power. Now shush, or I'll have to Hex you."

He stalked off ahead of them, hoping that it would at least hold off the questioning for now, especially considering he wanted to get these pieces of amulet and get out of the damned Valley as fast as possible. Thankfully, it seemed that the two of them had at least dropped the matter for now, their footsteps hurrying to fall in behind him once more, though he was sure he heard Hana murmuring to Kabuto, "He can do that?"

_Sometimes, I wonder if everyone I know happen to be idiots,_ Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes and shake his head, fighting the urge to say 'I can hear you', if only to get them to jump. Better just to drop the subject now.

The tunnel went on only a little further before it opened out into a large cavern of some kind. It seemed like it could have been man made, most likely through some form of earth jutsu, or someone with a lot of time on their hands, though the 'roof' of the cave seemed to have cracks in it in places. It didn't grant much light through them, but occasionally, sand would train in a thin stream from some areas of it. The cave itself seemed quiet, though Harry suspected it must be near the surface at least, because he could hear the sound of the wind distantly, the only other hint to the Sandstorm that still raged on outside.

Raising his wand a little higher to try and illuminate the area better, Harry scanned around, looking for any sin of traps or even some hint as to wear the item was that they were looking for. But really, he couldn't see anything. So far there had been no trip ropes, footprints, areas where hidden switches could be. And he even used his Sharingan to look. Honestly, he had been expecting something to be there. Either they hid it better than even the Sharingan could pick up, or he was missing something. Or perhaps the amulet piece had already been taken by someone? That was a thought. But even then, there should have been something left behind, some form of obstacle…

"Smell for it, Haimaru," Hana ordered the nin-dogs, who barked in reply, the three canine splitting up as they began to sniff and snuffle around for any sign of where a shard might be.

"This seems too quiet," Kabuto murmured as he looked around himself, seeming rather tense and on edge as he eyed the walls and the shadowed areas carefully. "They said there would be some form of obstacle…this seems too easy."

_And now he probably jinxed us…_ The Uchiha couldn't help but think dully, shaking his head as he moved to look around again, until he heard it, the sound of something clicking, something coming from the darkness behind him…and seemed to be very, very close.

Tensing, Harry swallowed and looked around, hoping, really, really hoping, that the sound he had heard was no due to the fact that Kabuto had jinxed things, and was only the product of his own imagination caused by thinking that Kabuto's words had caused their luck to take a nose dive. Unfortunately, he turned around in time to find himself face to face with smooth, armour like skin and cruel looking pincers that clicked slightly as they closed together. Eyes wide at this point, Harry managed to lift the wand a little more, realising he was indeed looking at pincers large enough to take off his head…attached to an arm…attached to the shiny armoured body of what looked like a scorpion. Not just any scorpion, but a scorpion that looked as though it had been cross-bread with a magical creature from his 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' book; perhaps one of those Acromantulas – because the scorpion in front of them was at least the size of a small house! What was worse, was its large, segmented tail was arched high and quivering, its vicious point looking ready at any minute to dart out and impel some hapless victim that had disturbed it. And unfortunately, the 'Hapless victims' that disturbed it had to be them.

_Oh this is so Kabuto's fault…And screw you Murphy's law!_

Harry quickly leapt back, even as he heard Hana whistle and the dogs immediately returned to her side, hackles raised, alternating between growing threateningly and half whimpering at the giant Scorpion that was bearing down on them.

Everything seemed so still for a moment, the three Genin and three dogs watching the giant creature before them, hoping that if they didn't move to quickly, that perhaps the creature wouldn't see them as a threat and might just let them back away slowly, but that idea went out of the window as soon as the tail quivered, and one of its mainly legs moved forwards, intent on getting to them.

"Scatter!" Hana yelled. "Now!"

She didn't need to say that twice. No one wanted to be backed into a corner by this thing, and if they were all in one place when it did, they wouldn't be able to do anything to save each other. The warning didn't come a moment too soon. The tail shot out, ready to impale them seconds after they had scattered, the sharp point crashing into the floor as if made of steel. Rolling upright and scrambling to get out from between the creatures legs, Harry looked back to see the stone that the stinger had crashed through was hissing ever so slightly – it appeared that the huge creature was venomous – and extremely deadly if that acidic sounding stuff ended up in one of their veins. And that was even if they survived getting impaled on the end of that huge, lethal-looking spike that jutted out of the bulbous end of the scorpion's tail.

Yes, definitely, definitely didn't want to get hit by that.

"To the entrance!" Harry yelled. "It wont be able to fit there!"

He was certain he heard agreement and scrambling, however, Harry himself wasn't able to focus on the others for two long, despite hearing an oath that seemed to come from Kabuto and sudden barking from one of the Haimaru trio, as he found himself having to dodge out of the way of one of the scorpion's claws aiming to clamp on his head with one of his pincers, Jumping back and tossing several Shuriken, but the weapons bounced harmlessly off its armoured skin. Cursing, he had to dodge away again to avoid a strike from its tail. Unfortunately, he was hit by one of the other claws, managing to practically spam him into one of the cave walls, knocking the wind out of him with a sharp pain through his back, stars sparking in front of his eyes from the hit.

Groaning, he flopped forwards, face down on the sandy rock as he coughed weakly, gasping for air in his shocked lungs, if only to try to get rid of the black patches dancing in front of his eyes. Damn, that thing hit hard. More like being struck by a freight train than an overgrown arachnid.

"Taicho-chan!" He heard Hana yell over the pain in his lungs.

"Get back!" Kabuto's voice called urgently

There was the sound of scuffling and crashing, a yelp of surprise and a rather loud oath.

"Damn, that thing's fast!"

"It's cut us off!"

Growling, Harry punched the ground then pulled himself up. He couldn't just lay there when his other team mates were still dealing with that thing. Quickly, he activated his Sharingan and looked around, trying to find where his team were, if the Scorpion had hurt them. His eyes soon landed on them. Unfortunately, it seemed that while he had actually been tossed into a wall quite near the entrance, his team mates were currently blocked off from the way they had come with the Scorpion bearing down on them. Not that they were standing there doing nothing or anything, but the thing was big enough that they didn't have enough of an opening to be able to get close enough to hit it without being hit right back.

Using mystic palm to get rid of some of the pain from being slammed into the wall, Harry's mind raced, trying to think of a way for them to be able to get in close enough, especially since the thing wasn't paying any attention to him right now. Maybe if he could somehow control its tail, it wouldn't be able to have one of its strongest weapons. Not to mention that maybe it would stop it from being able to move around too much and the three of them would be able to actually do some real damage on the thing.

_That's an idea…_Harry thought as a plan began to form in his head. Quickly, Harry darted up the side of the cave, using chakra to keep him on the wall until he got to the ceiling, running across it until he was in a good position to aim at the scorpions tail and whipped out his wand.

"Incarcerous!"

Thick ropes flew out of thin air acting almost like Sen'eijashu, wrapping around the arched tail, binding it tightly. With quick reflexes, Harry grabbed the end of the ropes and yanked back hard. The tail, which had been about to stab down onto one of the Haimaru, froze at the sudden strain against it and Harry grunted. The creature was stronger than he had thought – he had to use his chakra to help keep the ropes in his hands and his feet on the ceiling, leaning back with all his body weight to keep from being flung away by a surprise tug on the ropes. He doubted that he would be able to hold on it forever, his palms soon burned with the strain against his skin. Desperately, he tried to think of a good way of keeping the ropes from being tugged away. Taking a risk, he let go in order to move his wand again, and stick the ropes to the ceiling, leaping back a little so the rope didn't snap t him or tangle in his arms. He already had the tender feeling of rope burns on his palms to last for a lifetime.

With the creature partially restrained, Harry jumped down onto the creatures back, clinging onto the smooth armoured back for a moment until he could get his balance and chakra to his feet again, pointing his wand at the creature's head

"Reducto!"

The red blast came from the wand, but quickly, Harry had to duck down in order to avoid the spell that bounced back off the hard hide, cursing under his breath.

"It's skin's too hard!" Hana panted, darting away. "I've already tried a Gatenga and it didn't even scratch it!"

"Try the underside!" Harry suggested, trying to cling onto the bucking scorpion's back.

"We can't get close enough!" Kabuto yelled in return, having to roll out of the way of one of the flailing, club-like pincers.

The claws….that was the problem. None of them could get close enough to the thing' underside, because the thing was waving around its claws, making it difficult for them to get around even to the back, where the tail still strained against the congered ropes. If he could restrain those claws, then they should be able to get at its underside…

"Distract it," Harry yelled.

"What?!"

"Distract it!" Harry repeated as he made a few last minute calculations in his head, before grinning. "I got an idea!"

"You better know what you're doing," Kabuto managed before calling out to the creature. "Hey, over here! Come get me!" Throwing a couple of kunai into its face. Sure they bounced harmlessly off the armoured hide, but it did the job as the scorpion turned its attention on the grey haired shinobi, who was soon doing his best to avoid being clamped in-between the sharp-looking pincers.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Harry ran across the smooth armour and jumped off again, having to dodge around one of the Haimaru, who were currently doing their best to gnaw and bite at the creature's legs, but it seemed too focused on Kabuto and Hana to notice. Using it to his advantage, Harry hurried to another point part way up the wall and once again, conjured ropes, yanking back so that the claw wouldn't be able to pound down on Hana.

"Quickly!" Harry yelled, gasping as the creature pulled hard, stinging at his fingers. "Aim for its arm!"

Hana, who had hopped back, nodded, getting into a beast-like stance, "Tsuga!" she snarled, darting forwards and seemed like a tornado in a flurry of movement, the rapid spin ploughing through the scorpion's thin arm at the joint, sending the claw flying off and Harry almost lost his balance as the tension in the rope was suddenly released. Seeing the creature off balance, Kabuto managed to get close enough to strike at the areas that Haimaru had been weakening, managing to cause an even greater unbalance at the legs practically snapped under the combined force of the dog's attacks and Kabuto's vicious Chakra Scalpel enhanced strikes. Weighted on one side, the legs broken, the scorpion toppled onto one side.

Not wanting to risk the thing catching them off guard or something, even if it was struggling on one side at this point, Harry formed hand seals, bringing his fingers up to his lips.

"Katon: Gokakyou no jutsu!"

The giant fireball shot from his mouth and onto the unprotected belly of the creature, soon followed by several thrown weapons. Just as Harry's fireball started to taper off, several tornado's rushed passed him as Hana and the dogs all shot towards the creature, drilling straight through it. The Scorpion shuddered and thrashed, before finally going still.

"Did…." Hana panted as she got up from her crouch. "Did we do it?"

"I….think so," Harry managed, gulping a few times for breath himself, whipping the side of his mouth with the back of one hand where a little seat had rolled down his face from the fight.

Cautiously, Kabuto approached, his medic-trained eyes scanning over the creature, before pausing, as if startled, moving closer to where Hana's Gatsuga had torn through the middle. "This thing…" he gasped, his eyes wide. "It's hollow!"

"What?" Harry's eyes widened a little. "What do you mean, hollow?"

"I mean hollow, hollow," Kabuto said, shifting aside so that Harry could take a look, adjusting his glasses, while at the same time looking absolutely baffled. "There's nothing on the inside at all."

Taking the invitation, Harry made his way over the splinter (splinter?) covered ground, Harry rested a hand on the charred underbelly and peered inside. The hole was rather large and ragged, going right the way through, and he could see Hana and the Haimaru trio on the other side, peering in, looking just as confused as he felt. But Kabuto was right, there really seemed to be nothing in there at all but dark space. Harry was no expert on any kind of arachnids, but shouldn't there have at least been some kind of oozy innards coming out from the hole?

"Surely if this was a living creature, there should be something," Kabuto continued. "Organs, anything. But there's not."

"So….this is some kind of machine?" Hana said, squinting inside to try and get a better look.

"It's probably the obstacle to the amulet piece we're supposed to get," Harry said, frowning. "But….if it was a machine, shouldn't there be some mechanical parts in here?"

"It's unlikely to be a machine," Kabuto said. "But considering these exams are based in Suna, it's likely that it's a puppet."

"A puppet," Hana blinked, looking up at the huge arachnid. "This big? How can it even move?"

"Suna is well known for ninja with the ability to control puppets," Kabuto explained, his voice going into 'ninja-info-cards mode', as if he was reading information from that deck that he had tucked away. "Some ninja have been quite famous, or rather, infamous with the ability. Most of the time though, a ninja needs to be close to be able to control one of these, but perhaps this one was controlled long distance. Either that, or one of the people who are helping out with this exam was actually controlling this one."

Harry, Sharingan blazing, scanned the walls and ceiling, but couldn't see anything. Come to think of it, he didn't see anything like that when he was on the ceiling restraining the creature's tail either. Then again, he had been a bit more concerned with trying to keep the scorpion from killing one of his team mates or something at the time. "Well, if there was someone close by, they're not here anymore." He noted after a moment, letting the Sharingan darken back to deep green once again. "Well…Either way, it's down. If this was an obstacle to get one of the pieces of the amulet, then where -"

However, a strange whirring sound broke through the silence and the Scorpion-puppet shuddered. Harry jumped back, tense. Was it going to get up and attack again? Hana and the dogs were soon at the boys' sides, all off them backing up as one, breath drawn in, waiting, waiting for the thing to get up again and start attacking. Oddly, though, this didn't happen. Instead, the whirring stopped, and a section of the scorpion dropped off, just under where it's head had been, and something separated from that, hitting the floor with a clink and skidding to a halt in front of their feet. The scorpion once more became silent and still.

Eyeing the puppet again, just in case this was some kind of trap (though it seemed to be little more than a broken marionette at this point) Harry cautiously stepped forwards as one of the Haimaru sniffed at it, his tail wagging as he barked. Obviously he wasn't sensing anything bad about it. Crouching down, he poked at it for a moment, then picked it up, turning it over in his hands. His eyes widened.

"This is…" Harry grinned in realisation. Hana, seeing what he was looking at, quickly rummaged into her pouch and pulled out the piece of amulet that they had started off with and held it up to the object in Harry's hands. Carefully, Harry rested part of it against the 'broken' edge of the amulet piece, his eyes brightening as the two parts slotted together with ease.

"Well, it looks like this was one of the obstacles," Kabuto noted with a smile as the two younger genin whooped and high-fived each other.

"So now all we need to do it get the piece from another team and get over to the building, right?" Hana said happily. "I hope that it wont take us long to do that. The feeling of sand in my hair is driving me nuts. Haimaru have been complaining about it itching their fur ever since we got in the Valley."

"Maybe we should head up to where the entrance is and check on that sand storm," Kabuto suggested as Harry slipped the new part of the amulet into his hip pouch (Hana had put the piece they started with back into hers too.) "I mean, we won't be able to do much of anything if that storm keeps going. We've still got two days, but if it doesn't look like its going to let us, we'll have to come up with some kind of plan."

"If nothing else, we could always make some makeshift armour out of this guy," Harry chuckled, jutting a thumb at the Scorpion's 'remains'.

"How would we do that with only the small supplies we have?" Hana blinked.

"Magic, of course!"

"…"

"…"

"That still sounds so _weird_, even if it was really helpful," Hana shook her head, rolling her eyes skyward."

"Tell me about it," Harry sighed. "But like I said, I wasn't the one who named it. Anyway, let's get going. After all that, I wouldn't mind getting something to eat and drink after all that excitement.

As it was, the sandstorm was still raging outside, but, thankfully, the sheet covering the cave entrance was doing its job. Other than a bit of a sprinkling around the edges where the sides weren't pinned down by kunai, they had yet to have been buried in sand. Kabuto managed to look through one of the gaps in the sheet for long enough to make an estimation that the sandstorm would pass somewhere in the middle of the night, but he had to sit back and spend a good ten minutes cleaning off his glasses before he could actually see through them again.

"We should just settle down to rest then," Harry suggested as he sipped on some of the water from one of the flasks. "Then we should head out during the night once the storm's past."

"Why during the night?" Hana blinked, pausing in her chewing of one of the ration bars to eye their youngest team member. "Wouldn't it be best to get a full night sleep?"

"Maybe, but the thing is, while it's night, with the way the Valley is made, we could probably see where other people are by camp fires they may have made. Some of the ones who had to make up shelters and weren't as lucky as us wont really be expecting to be attacked, and probably wouldn't be ready for a fight," he frowned. "I don't like the idea of having to be so underhanded, but with how hot the desert can get during the day, the only people who have the advantage would be Suna ninja, and that's because they live in the desert all the time. The longer we spend in this place, the harder it's going to get for us to actually get what we need and get over to that tower after all."

"That is a good point," Kabuto agreed. "Get some rest you to. I'll wake you up when its time to change watch."

"Thanks, Kabuto," Harry yawned a little, putting the flask away and fidgeted a bit against the wall, trying to get as comfortable as he could to at least attempt to get some shut eye. With the sand blocking out most of the light and the sheet blocking the entrance, it was dark enough for him to at least semi trick his body into thinking it was night time rather than evening. And though he had healed himself somewhat, his body still ached a little – probably from the sunburn more than anything – so he was ready to at least get some sleep after everything that had happened on their first day in the desert. It didn't take long for him to drift off, the faint sound of the rushing wind outside, Hana's soft breathing and the small 'woof' sounds coming from dreaming canines lulling him into slumber.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It was all too soon that Harry had been shaken from sleep for the second time to find that it was very dark in the cave, but could hear the snuffling of the dogs that were now waking up Kabuto. Managing to create a light with his wand again sleepily, Harry blinked around the cave, fumbling for his pack. Everyone was quiet, yawning a little and trying to stretch the kinks out of muscles from having slept oddly, not really in the mood to get into long conversation. Hana, though, made her way to the entrance and tugged out the kunai, removing the cloth and making a small wave of sand was over their feet. It was a good job that the sandstorm had ended when it had; otherwise Harry was sure they would have been digging their way out of the cave.

Still, he couldn't help but gape in shock when he stepped out onto the moon-bleached-silver sand. It was as if someone had taken the Valley of Illusion that they had seen before entering and somehow flipped it and shook it around a bit, because the place looked like it had undergone some kind of geographical overhaul. None of the landmarks that Harry had seen in the day seemed to be in the same place but for the tower in the distance.

"I…guess this is another reason this place got its name," Kabuto managed to get out after the three of them had finished gaping. "If they have sandstorms a lot of the time through the valley, then it would make the entire place seem disorientating and would be useful for making people confused."

"Not that people need more reasons to be confused when people end up hallucinating due to the sun during daylight," Hana grumbled, obviously remembering the mirages that they had witnessed earlier on in the day. Harry couldn't help but agree. It was ridiculously funny when watching other teams attempting to dive into a pool that wasn't there, but it was less funny when you yourself started to see things.

"Anyway, we should get moving," Harry said, not really wanting to think of his own situation when he had thought someone was going to attack them because of the mirages. "Its much cooler in the night, so we shouldn't have problems with the mirages. If you see any light, tell us. Can you pick up any scents?" he added to Hana.

The Inuzuka shook her head. "Sorry, Harry," she said regretfully. "The sandstorm churned up the sand far too much. Any scent tracks people might have left beforehand would have been blown away long ago, so we won't be able to track down someone from where they walked yesterday. But we'll tell you if we pick up something too. After all, there might be teams that didn't manage to make any fires or anything. So long as we're downwind of someone, we'd pick up if there are any humans nearby."

"Well, that's good enough for now," Harry shrugged. Even that was more helpful than nothing at all. "Let's get going then and see if we can find anyone."

Thankfully, travelling through the desert at night, at least to Harry, was much more preferable than travelling in it in the day. Sure he still somehow managed to get sand in his collar, but at least this time he wasn't drenched in sweat. In fact, it felt a little like being in the dungeons at Hogwarts in the winter during potions class. The fact they were moving around made it much more bearable than baking sun and being covered in sand due to it sticking to a sweat-drenched body.

Despite all this, they didn't actually find a team until the sky was also beginning to lighten on the horizon an hour or so before dawn, and even then, if it hadn't been for Hana and her nin-dogs, they probably would have missed it entirely. The team that they stumbled upon appeared to have been one of the unlucky ones that hadn't been able to find shelter like their own team had, and had instead created a shelter themselves in a rather ingenious manner, in Harry's opinion. The team had managed to create a pit, wide enough for the three of them, and had used one of the blankets much as Harry's team had, though in their case, had used it to cover up the pit. The only reason they had noticed them was because the sand had started to shift around as one of the genin (from Suna, by the looks of their headbands, which explained why they had managed to make such a shelter – they probably had training for this kind of thing) had started to hover the sheet from over the top of them without burying them in half a ton of sand.

Managing to hide behind a sand dune, the team glanced at each other. It seemed that the people were still sleepy, having just woken up in a good spot to not be seen at all after the sand storm. Carefully, they slid a little further down the dune so they couldn't see them and to think of some kind of plan.

"We can't spend too long just sitting here planning," Hana murmured. "They'll see us and we'll be attacked if it takes us too long."

"Well, this is a desert, so snakes are found here," Kabuto said. "Harry could summon his snakes to act as a distraction. Once they're sufficiently distracted, we can strike. But we'd have to move quickly if it's going to work before they notice u-Ahhh!"

Kabuto's face contorted with pain and, to the younger ninja's horror, a blade jutted out of Kabuto's shoulder, the grey and purple clothing darkening with blood around it. A moment later, with a sickening sound, the blade was removed and Kabuto collapsed forwards. In the sand dune, an arm was disappearing back into the sand. Seconds later, the sand exploded outwards with arcs of wind that seemed to scour through the sand. Quickly, Harry darted forwards, yanking Yabuto's downed form out of the way before he was sliced in two, while Hana managed to dive in the opposite direction, hitting the deck in order to avoid having her head sliced from her shoulders.

His hair finally settling as the attack passed, Harry pulled himself from Kabuto, eyes scanning the older boy, seeing his pale, pain contorted face and the wound on his arm.

"Kabuto!" Harry said quickly, hoping to god that it hadn't hit some artery or something.

"I….I'm….fine…" Kabuto managed, opening his eyes, squinting up before his expression twisted. "Behind you!"

Spinning around, he found himself looking up at two ninja, both of whom were Suna ninja, both of whom looked rather smug.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The obvious leader of the two smirked as he stared down at them, holding a blade that had been used to strike Kabuto, blood still darkening its blade, glinting in the half light. "A group of Konoha ninja? Guess you thought you could pull a fast one while it was early. Lucky for us, that's what we were hoping that you'd do."

Realising exactly what had happened, Harry cursed under his breath. They had sent up that thing with the person exiting the dug out hole as a distraction, to let people think they were an easy target, while the other two waited for anyone who might come along to reverse ambush them.

"Well, we need a piece from another team at any rate, so, why don't you be good and hand it over?" the other one said, brandishing a tessen at them, the metal edge of the fan ready to either try slice at Harry or Kabuto, or ready to launch a wind jutsu at them.

As it was, they forgot about the three dogs. One of which jumped at the tessen user, jaws clamping on the hand. Quickly, Harry grabbed up Kabuto and yanked them away, just as Hana and the two other nin-dogs launched themselves at them in spiralling tornadoes of claws and fangs. With a yell, they both darted out of the way.

"Move it!" Hana yelled to them and Harry scrambled upright, half dragging, half carrying Kabuto out of the way, while Hana watched their backs, the Haimaru brothers helping to block off some of the attacks. It was difficult running through sand, and a couple of times Harry slipped, even with chakra at his feet, it was different than trying to tree climb, or even water walk and there was no real time to be able to properly adjust his chakra to run over the sand without ending up with a wind jutsu slicking through them or who knew what else.

The third Suna ninja, the one who had been acting as bait, shot an earth jutsu through the ground, sending earth and sand shooting up into the air and throwing them further down the sands, rolling to the bottom of the dunes. Coughing sand, Harry managed to twist around and launch Sen'eijashu at the attacker as he jumped in to try and hit them with what looked like an iron club. The strike smashed into the ninja's face, sending him cartwheeling off into the air with a cry of pain.

Hana joined them, skidding down the sands, one of the dogs clutched in her arms, the other two soon thrown into them with a powerful wind jutsu.

"Hana!" Harry yelled.

Kabuto struggled for a moment, managing to make some seals. "D-Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu!" And grabbed onto Hana, who was clutching her nin-dog's to her, and Harry by the back of his shirt, yanking them underground, darkness closing behind them. For a moment, Harry wondered if he had lost consciousness or something, but he could still hear heavy breathing and groans of pain. They were….underground?

Fumbling for a moment, Harry found his wand and murmured "Lumos", almost blinding himself with the sudden white light from the end of his wand. Blinking a few times, he looked over at his team mates. Kabuto was looking rather pale, clutching his shoulder, but seemed to be remarkably calm. Hana was just righting herself, checking over her dogs, one of which seemed rather dazed and all looked a little matted and ruffled from the attacks. Other than some flesh wounds that seemed to have come from wind jutsu, they seemed to be ok, though. Harry let out a sigh of relief, turning his attention back to Kabuto, forming the seals for mystic palm and started to try to heal up the wound on Kabuto's shoulder, though it seemed to be rather stubborn.

"What….is…up…with…this," Harry growled, wondering why he was struggling to heal the wound. He'd healed stab wounds before and all sorts of thing, especially considering he had learned in order to survive the battering that Anko used to give him.

"There was probably poison on the blade that's slowing healing or something," Kabuto said, wincing a little. "I'll survive though. Just….just give me a moment. I'll try to fix it once they've go-" The grey haired ninja was cut off as there was a rumbling sound coming somewhere from above and a little rock fell down near by. His expression hardened. "Looks like they wont be passing by. They're probably using an earth jutsu to try and dig us out."

"We need to either find a way to sneak away from them until we can regroup, or we need some plan to take them out," Hana said, chewing on her lip. "But they've got some good tactics. Earth jutsu to keep us from standing right, wind jutsu so we cant dodge into the air, and even if we did get close enough, that last one has poison by the sounds of thinds and is a pretty good taijutsu expert too. He really got Haimaru," she added, looking worriedly over her small pack.

Harry frowned, trying to think of something. He didn't like the idea of being sitting ducks and he certainly didn't want the earth jutsu user to send the desert crashing into them from above. But what could handle their combined power…Wait!

"Actually….I have an idea," he said eyes wide as he thought about it, his fingers clenching on the mark on his arm, the one he had been given only a month or two ago. "But you're going to have to trust me. Whatever you do, don't open your eyes until I give the word."

"What?" Hana blinked. "But how're we supposed to-"

"If this works, we won't have to do much of anything," Harry admitted, glancing over at the team. His heart clenched at the thought that doing this would most likely cause the three of them to die, but….no, he couldn't think like that. These people weren't holding back. They'd already injured Kabuto, they were aiming to kill them, not just incapacitate them. And Harry hadn't gone through all the things he had, surviving Voldemort as a baby, surviving the massacre, surviving Voldemort another two times just for these Suna ninja to kill them now. So if he had to pull out the Basilisk in order to do it, then he would, if it meant protecting his team and getting them all out of this fine mess alive.

"What are you going to do?" Hana asked weakly.

"I've…got a summon, but it really is only good if its just you and the enemy, otherwise, it's a lot of collateral damage, because if you look at it is could end up hurting your allies as well as the people you're setting it on." Harry tried to explain, though really, how could you explain a Basilisk to anyone who wasn't magical, really? Even Harry had to try and wrap his mind around it. Not to mention this was going to be ridiculously risky, considering Harry had never actually summoned the basilisk before this despite him having practiced summoning to get to larger summon snakes. The basilisk, however, by far would be the largest he would have summoned to date. Assuming he didn't just drain himself of chakra and then end up passing out rather than helping. Still, this was something of a do or die situation right now.

Kabuto looked at him in disbelief. "You're really going to have to explain a bit about some of these things you can do, Harry-taichou," Kabuto shook his head.

"If we get out of this ok," Harry said with a half smile. "Is there any way back to the surface without immediately getting sliced to bits?"

The older ninja thought it over for a moment, seemingly concentrating on something that Harry couldn't exactly tell, before nodding. "I can get you a little ways behind them on the surface, but you'll have to hurry up with anything you want to do, otherwise they might get to you."

"I'll do my best," Harry admitted. "I might need back up or something though, so if you can keep an eye on the surface still…"

"We'll jump in if things go wrong, promise," Kabuto agreed.

"You better be careful," Hana said. "I mean it. This is stupid and reckless…"

"If it gets us out of here alive then I'll live with it," Harry shrugged, looking back at her, face set into determination, a glint in his dark green eyes. "You can chew me out for it once we're safe, ok?" He turned to look at Kabuto. "Get me up there, ok? And if you do come up to help me out, be careful not to look at anything I've summoned, if you sense I've summoned something at all. I don't have a cure for petrifaction on me."

"I'm beginning to wonder exactly what you're summoning here," Hana said uneasily.

"Trust me," Harry said. "Kabuto?"

"Alright, I'm ready," Kabuto nodded. "You'll have to summon more or less as soon as you break from the surface."

"Got it."

Kabiuto quickly grabbed hold of Harry and suddenly it was as if he was shooting straight through the rock and stone and sand somehow, breaking through the surface where Harry could see Kabuto still partially underground and burrowing back into the earth again and the ninja from Suna were just a but further away. He really wouldn't have much time to do this and could only hope that the basilisk's armoured hide would be able to protect him from any arcs of wind that would otherwise cut him to bits. Biting is thumb hard enough to braw blood, he formed hand seals even while he was still in the air, swiping it across that odd marking on his arm. Across from him, he could already see the wind user preparing an attack as he landed on the ground and slammed his hand to the ground, black, seal like marking rushing over the sand.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Harry felt as if chakra was rushing out of him dizzyingly fast, a huge chunk vanishing in payment for the technique, more than he was used to, and for a second he thought it had failed. But just as wind was rushing towards him, there was a large plume of smoke and the sound of something striking something hard, his hair ruffling around his face as wind brushed either side, but didn't touch him.

_Did I…?_

Taking a risk, Harry, keeping his gaze lowered, opened his eyes, seeing before him thick scaled skin and almost grinned. He'd done it!

"_Master called for me," _The familiar hiss of the large serpent from the Chamber of Secrets met his ears, snake tongue translated into English to his ears. _"You are…being attacked. What do you wish of me?"_

Eyes screwed shut to avoid being petrified or killed accidentally, Harry lifted his head. "Take those three out," he ordered, though inwardly, he still felt a little sick at the thought, he knew it needed to be done. He was a Shinobi. And Shinobi killed.

"_As you wish."_ The Basilisk hissed and shot forwards with surprising speed. He could hear yelling and a shocked gasp as someone collapsed to the ground – probably having met the snake's deadly gaze. There was the sound of kunai being thrown, but glancing off the basilisk's skin (Harry had to shift out of the way in order to avoid being stabbed by one of those blades, silently glad that he had act least picked up how to fight without his sight. He sensed that the wind user was going to try something and quickly formed hand seals, shooting several fireballs in the direction of the ninja, launching a few shuriken to follow behind the flames. The wind stirred around him – obviously trying to put out the flames or redirect them, only to have the Shuriken continue. A catch in breath indicating he at least got a glancing blow, before the huge serpent lashed out, fangs, deadly, poisonous, sinking into flesh.

Perhaps that had been a little overkill?

A few moments later, he could feel the sand shifting nearby as the basilisk returned to his side. _"I see that you…really do have that ability…to summon me,"_ The basilisk noted. _"I am glad….that you remembered my gift. Is there anything else…you require?"_

"No, I'm good," Harry said, before, hesitantly, reaching out, his fingers touching smooth but hard scales, what felt a little like a very large snout. He felt a forked tongue flick out for a moment, almost causing him to jump back, until he remembered this was fairly normal snake behaviour. "Thank you," he added, remembering that, even though some of them could be annoying as hell, snakes also responded to politeness, which Harry could do, so long as they hadn't been driving him insane all day. Not to mention this particular snake, though admittedly obedient because he had parseltongue, could easily kill him with a single bite.

"_I shall return…to the chamber….until you need me again…" _The snake said in return, before a poof later, and the feeling of anything under his hand vanished completely – the basilisk was gone.

Taking a breath, Harry dropped to his knees, exhausted. He felt like he could probably sleep for a week. However, he forced himself to open his eyes and see exactly the damage he had wrought by summoning the basilisk to the fight. Before him, the earth jutsu user was obviously dead, eyes wide as he looked at nothing, Another was nothing more than blood streaks on the sand at this point, the last one who had obviously become a snack for the snake, probably after its fangs had brought him a rather swift and painful end. The last, the one who had been throwing kunai and stuff erratically, was stone still. He must have caught the eye of the snake in the reflection of one of his weapons, now looking like a coloured statue in the sun's early morning light, Petrified. Which was pretty much as good as being dead, because he didn't have the ingredients yet to make a restorative and he wasn't sure it would be a good idea to give it to the guy anyway, considering that the same snake that petrified him had disposed of his two team mates.

It still made him feel sick, however, though if that was just Harry feeling guilty that he had helped to end their lives, or if he was just overly exhausted from summoning such a large snake for the first time.

_They knew that they could die in here, _Harry reminded himself, _They signed that form just like the rest of us. They were going to kill us if we hadn't done this. People who kill should be prepared to be killed too…_

Still didn't make him feel much better, but it was a start, at least. And, sad as it was to say, it wasn't as though this was the first time he had killed someone after all. He could still remember the possessed Quirrell screaming in pain as he died from Harry's touch and his mother's protection.

"Taichou-chan? Are you ok?"

Harry blinked to find Hana standing there, leaning over him, her dark eyes running over him, as if looking for wounds. A little further away, Kabuto was sitting on the sand, running a glowing hand over his wounded shoulder. It looked like he had already dealt with whatever the poison was, because the wound seemed to be closing a little better than it had when Harry had tried earlier on.

"Yeah….Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said, taking a breath and managing to dredge up a smile for his friend. "Just….really tired is all."

"You can be quite scary, you know that, Harry-taichou," Kabuto noted, his eyes sweeping over the remains. "You wouldn't think it, looking at you."

"Gee, thanks," Harry snorted, voice dripping sarcasm, before his face morphed into concern. He couldn't really start moping or something considering his team mates had been rather battered from before. "Are you guys ok?"

"I'm OK," Hana nodded, before indicating the dogs who were all sanding close by, looking a little ruffled, but they seemed ok if the wagging tails from the sudden attention was any indication. "And Haimaru'll be fine too. They were just a bit winded, but they're made of tough stuff. All Inuzuka bred dogs are. Much like we Inuzuka, really," she added with a smile.

"And you, Kabuto?"

"Not too bad," he said. "The blade may have partially broken one of the bones though, so I'll have to have a medic look at it once we're out of here, but if I'm careful, I should make it to the tower just fine. Its not bleeding any more anyway, and I got the poison out." He must have seen something in Harry's face, because he chuckled. "Oh, don't worry, Harry-taichou, I'll be fine. I've had worse. Speaking of getting to the tower though, did we manage to get a piece of amulet from them?"

Amulet…? Shoot! Harry had completely forgotten about that! Hoping and preying that the basilisk hadn't eaten the one with the piece, Harry looked at the two remaining bodies and tried to get to his feet, though he felt dizzy from the sudden low chakra levels after his large summoning.

Thankfully, it seemed Hana noticed he was struggling and motioned for him to stay where he was, heading over to the two of them. After a few minutes of searching (the dogs helping out by sniffing around) one of Haimaru barked to Hana and she rummaged in one of the pouches, pulling out a familiar looking shard. Harry couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief that his plan hadn't screwed them over as well as kill these three.

"We've got what we need," Hana said, smiling. "We should get to the tower. If we can do that without too much trouble, then I'll be happy. I'm sick of this desert. Once we do that, its mission accomplished."

**To Be Continued…**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o 0o0o0**

_**Translation list:**_

_(all Japanese words used in this chapter that are not present here have already been translated in other chapters.)_

_Janken – The Japanese name for a rock-paper-scissors like 'fist' game. There are other names that it can be referred to as well, such as Ishiken, Jaiken, Injan or Jan-Ken-Pon. One of the oldest form of Ken (fist) games is Sen Sukumi Ken (__san sukumi__ means the freezing aspects of a snake, frog, and slug with fear – ironic when you consider the summons of a certain trio in Naruto, and the summons of those three was probably based on this idea) – a game that Janken is said to be based on._

_Mokuton – Wood release. An advanced Kekkei Genkai that originated firstly from Senju Hashirama, the first Hokage, that combines Earth and water natured chakra in order to control wood and trees, or even plants, and can be formed from anywhere, including the users body. Though in the anime and Manga, Hashirama states that no one in the Senju had the ability before him, and other non-Senju have had it throughout the Naruto series, usually due to DNA that was extracted from Hashirama himself, Harry only knows, likely from history lessons at the academy, that Senju Hashirama had the ability, and thus believes it to be a Senju bloodline._

_Tsuga – Passing Fang. An Inuzuka clan technique that is mostly done using only one person. It can be used with dog partners as well (though that version is known as Gatsuga (aka Fang Passing Fang). Inuzuka Kiba has used this ability in the Naruto Anime and Manga._

_Tessen: an Iron war fan_

_Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu - Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique. An earth style jutsu that lets the user burry deep underground to avoid attacks. There, they can attack from underground. Users can also sense what's happening on the surface so that they can launch a surprise attack._

_Kuchiyose no Jutsu – summoning technique_

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_Phew! One of my longest chapters for this story! 25 pages long, not including the translations and my notes. But after the time that I left you guys waiting for me, I thought a slightly longer chapter would be good. Although I have had good reasons for not updating for several months. Basically, real life got a hold of me and a lot has been going on all at once. My granddad was in and out of hospital for several months, and unfortunately passed away in October, and then my Grandma started to get ill and has been needing a lot of care as well. Suffice to say, I've been busy with that and work, so I haven't had much time to spend on stories. However, things seem to be looking up for now in terms of my time, so I'm back in writing again!_

_Now, the Valley of Illusion's chapter really turned out differently than I expected it to be. In fact, the fight with the Suna ninja was going to be completely different – I wasn't actually thinking of summoning the basilisk that this point at all. Hence why I didn't get around to giving it its new name yet – that will happen later on, and when they meet at Hogwarts again. And the scorpion was going to be lots of little ones with Genjutsu to make them look giant. But strangely, it came out like this. Don't know if its better or worse than I imagined it to be, but… Well, I hope you all enjoyed it either way._

_I really treat this team badly, don't I? I didn't want them to seem too powerful. For Harry and Hana, this is their first exam after all, and Kabuto always does seem to come across as being a bit average before he reveals himself as a traitor in canon, and I was trying to get him to come across as this here. Of course, the Basilisk may have been a bit overkill really, but I wanted to at least give it an epic entrance before any of its weaknesses really come into play (as there are indeed weaknesses to it, otherwise canon Harry would have been screwed). I'm really trying not to let Harry become too strong too soon though, so I hope this didn't make him come across as overly powerful. _

_Well, that's the second exam more or less done. I hope that it lived up to everyone's expectations and was worth the wait!_

_Also, have a very Happy New Year. I hope that 2013 is a good year for everyone!_

_**Preview of the next Uchiha Potter**_

_**Harry**__: Whew! The second exam's done and we can finally get out of this desert, but, wait, we have a month before the third exam?_

_**Shikaku**__: I've set up someone to help train you for the third exam. That person should help you with your unique skills._

_**Harry:**__ That person…? Next episode: Prelude to the Final Exam! Just who is this person you've set up to train me anyway?_

_**Until Next Time,**_

_**Ja ne!**_

_**Chosha Kurenai xXx**_


	25. Chapter 24: Prelude to the Final Exam

**Uchiha Potter**

**By**

**Chosha Kurenai**

_**Important:**_

_This is the Unbeta'd version of the chapter. This notice will be changed once the chapter has been Beta'd. _

_**Last time on Uchiha Potter:**_

_The second exam begins and Harry, along with his team, enter the Valley of Illusions, lead by the Jonin Satetsu, where they must complete an amulet to get into the Tower at the other end of the Valley. The valley itself poses a problem, from Mirages and the heat, to a sandstorm that drives the team to seek shelter. Finding shelter in a cave, they also find the first piece of the amulet guarded by a giant scorpion puppet. Taking this down, they managed to gain the piece of amulet that dropped out of it. The second piece came from a Suna genin team, who reverse ambushed them and injured Kabuto, driving the group underground. Realising the team would not let them leave alive, Harry resorts to summoning the basilisk for the first time, the magical snake managing to kill the three for them, and they retrieve the piece of amulet from them. Exhausted from the fight and the desert that was the Valley of Illusion, the team make their way to the tower at the other end of the desert in order to complete the second exam._

_**Disclaimer:**_

_I, Chosha Kurenai, hereby swear that ownership of Naruto and its entire related media belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Likewise Harry Potter and it's relating media belongs to JK Rowling. Uchiha Potter is Fan Faction only and is written purely for entertainment, and is not meant as infringement on any rights belonging to the artist, author or companies who created them. Please support the official anime/manga/novel/film releases. _

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**Prelude to the Final Exam**

The journey to the singular building in the valley of illusions, thankfully, was nowhere near as bad as the trio of Konoha ninja had feared it possibly could have been. After all, not only did they have all the pieces of the amulet needed to get into the building itself (and thus pass) but they were also travelling with a wounded team member and a nin-dog with a limp courtesy of their run in with the Suna team. Coupled with the fact that, as the sun made its appearance and settled in the sky once more, the intense heat of the previous day had also returned and with it, the possibility of mirages. The treacherous combination left them all high strung and paranoid, constantly expecting an attack on their vulnerable selves at any moment their guard wavered.

As it was, either fate had taken pity on them and leaning to the more positive side of Harry's bipolar luck for once, the intense heat was making the other teams lethargic and stupid or their heightened paranoia had somehow enhanced all their senses, because the few times they had spotted any other team, it was usually long before the other teams had even been aware they were there.

Once, Hana and the Haimaru brothers had managed to catch the scent of other humans when the wind had changed direction, allowing them to creep further south until they were no longer in danger of crossing paths. Another time, Harry had spotted a team that had been fighting with another team, giving him time and enough of a distraction to shove his team mates behind a sand dune, and subtly cast a Disillusionment charm to cover them until the victorious team had passed by, leaving a group of dead Taki ninja and bypassing them entirely. Not to mention their near miss, as they were spotted once just before Kabuto had been able to throw up a genjutsu to cover them. Harry had been sure they would be in for a fight, but apparently the hasty illusion had worked. After all, they had been in the desert long enough that the Desert of Illusion was a mirage paradise and no team would be stupid enough to hide themselves behind a genjutsu when they had already been seen…

Harry still couldn't help but shake his head and face palm at the whole thing ten minutes later that they had managed to pull that clumsy evasion off, but decided trying to work out how on earth they managed that would only serve to give him a headache and a read mark under his Hitae ate and on his palm from repetitive collisions.

Instead, Harry mentally added that to his list of 'Dumb and Stupid Unexplainable Things That Happen to Me' (also known as DSUTTHM, not to be confused with DSUTTHM: Hogwarts Edition, which was already insanely long due to the involvement of magic, or DSUTTHM: Uzuchiha Edition, which mostly involved how the hell a half trained academy student managed to pull off pranks on ANBU level ninja and had only ever been caught by one irate Chunin Academy Instructor – What were the ANBU doing, sleeping?!)

Still, weird as it was, it was much better than the alternative.

By the time they had reached the building, it was the dusk of their second day in the valley, the sky becoming a dull orange colour as the dying light hit the sand that flurried in the winds. Harry had long been turned into a human crutch for a pale faced Kabuto, while Hana herself had began to carry the injured nin-dog who had already started to struggle to keep his feat in the already uneven sand and had fallen repeatedly enough times that Hana was worried more damage would make him lame permanently. Harry couldn't help but feel relief flooding him as the building was finally in their reach. After all, they had started to run low on water and clean bandages for Kabuto and the Haimaru's wounds. If it had taken another day, Harry was sure he would have had to resort to casting the Aguamenti spell, but wasn't sure if sand-paper dry tongue and heat stroke wouldn't have left him conjuring something entirely different, like a Water Buffalo or something. And that wasn't even considering that if the wounds were left untreated it could cause worse problems for their injured friends.

The building itself wasn't a tower like in the forest of death, but a large dome similar to the architecture in part of Sunagakure, built in the same reddish orange sandstone as the valley itself, and probably made it a nightmare to spot when the winds were blowing strongly enough. There seemed to be hundreds of small rectangular windows that surrounded the dome near the top and the entrance itself was rather grand with an archway letting them step into the first lot of shade that they had seen since the sun had risen, leading them to tall, ornate doors that had an odd bronze seal in the middle that had an indent in the middle that looked about the right size and colour as the amulet parts they had spent the day before looking for, if all the parts were clipped together.

"I get it," Harry murmured as he eyed the pictures on the ornate door that appeared to me less random decoration for ornate purposes and more instructions as to what to do, now he was looking at them. Nodding, he pulled out his piece of the amulet and held it up, closing one eye as he imagined it and the other parts resting in the odd indentation. "This thing is just one big key. I bet if we put the parts of it together and then put the completed amulet into the hole and turn it like the pictures seem to be indicating, it'll complete the seal on the door and unlock it so we can get out of this place."

"Finally," Hana groaned. "I don't think I could stand much more of the heat. Not to mention I'm worried about my partners. It can't be healthy for them to stay in this kind of heat, and then there's that limp…."

"Not to mention your wound too, Kabuto," Harry added, frowning at the wound from there Suna ninja encounter that seemed to keep stubbornly resisting Kabuto's skills, as well as Harry's when he had given healing the wound a go, but their concentration had been frayed by the heat and by paranoia at being stuck out in the middle of the desert like sitting ducks. They did need a healer who hadn't been stuck in extreme conditions to help deal with that properly. "Anyway, get out the Amulet parts. The sooner we get into shade the sooner we can deal with….well, everything.

That seemed to motivate them at least and Harry soon found the other two parts pressed into his free hand.

It took a few moments to get the parts together so they clicked into the right place while Hana and Kabuto looked around nervously in case they were ambushed, but finally, Harry was holding a completed amulet. Nodding to himself, Harry stepped forward sand positioned the amulet, slotting it in place, before twisting it. There was a strange sound like grinding gears or something from behind the door before it moved, opening a crack and the parts of the amulet fell from the indentation. Scooping up the bits, Harry pushed the door open further and finally, they all stepped inside.

The rush of cool air as they stepped inside felt like a cooling balm after the heat of outside and already he felt his spirits lift a little as it was the best congratulations he could have got after that test. The only thing better would have been time to change into non-sweat and sand dirtied clothes and shower under ice cold water. Still, it was a good second choice. In the meantime, he took a moment to take a good look at the room itself as the doors closed behind them and shut once more so the next team could have their turn once they arrived.

They appeared to be in a large dome room with some stairs that lead up to a balcony overlooking the hall below, with doors leading off from the balcony area. The main room itself was large with a computer screen built into a statue of ninja arms, with hands forming the seal that usually appeared as standard at the beginning of wind jutsu. All in all though, after the hellish two days in that death trap of a desert, Harry could easily say that this was the most beautiful and heavenly place he had seen in a long time. Though that could have just been heat stroke thinking. Still, it did take all his willpower and pride, not to mention the fact that he was still keeping Kabuto upright, not to flop on the cool, smooth stone floors and let the aches in his body and the heat of the painful sunburn to be cooled and soothed, though he dead cast a few longing looks at the ground either way.

"Do you think there's going to be any more secret tests, like the first exam?" Hana asked, subtly looking between her exhausted nin-dogs and Kabuto, who looked about ready to keel over himself, before shooting Harry a worried look, which Harry returned, dread settling in his stomach. They had all been thinking that getting here would be the end of the test and therefore safe. But now Harry looked around at the area, it almost looked like the balconies were viewing platforms over an arena. While Harry and Hana sans Nin-dogs may be able to pull off something on their own if forced to, the Haimaru trio and Kabuto needed a break, otherwise they would be about as useful as sitting ducks.

"Oh no, nothing like that," said a voice and Harry tensed, hands shifting to his weapon pouch as his eyes shot up to the balcony, where the voice had come from. Standing at the top of the balcony stairs and making his way down was a man in a Suna chunin vest, with his had bound in a turban-like effect, some cloth hanging around his ears to protect his head from the baking sun that Suna would be graced with, his forehead protector over the top. "You reached here within the time limit with all three parts of the 'key' and are the second team to pass. So, you can relax now, the second exam is finished, for you at least. Congratulations."

Harry couldn't help but sigh and could feel Kabuto sag next to him in relief too. He had been worried, but thankfully it looked like their luck had turned at least.

"You wont be able to head back to the village just yet, at least until the full time limit has passed, so we can brief everyone on what will happen for the Third exam once we know everyone who has passed," the Chunin explained. "But don't worry though, there's food available here, beds, washing facilities if you need them and we have some medics stationed here as well in case anyone gets here badly injured at all, or if there's any problems with exposure – no offence, but not everyone from other villages are very good at handling our temperatures and heat stroke and exposure is pretty common during our exams. It looks like you may need them," he added, sending Kabuto considering looks, who, despite being pale faced and weakened, managed to summon up a sheepish, if somewhat shaky smile in response.

"Well then," the Chunin said finally. "I'll take you to the medical wing. The rest of you should relax, eat and pick out some rooms for the night that's left. Once the exam is finished, Satetsu-san will send out an announcement for all examinees to gather back here, so listen out for that. In the meantime, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Are you sure you'll be ok?" Hana asked Kabuto in concern as Harry helped to change human crutch from himself to the chunin.

"I'll be fine," Kabuto said with a slight smile. "The Medic-nin should be able to heal me right up. You guys relax a bit and I'll see you later. Just pick me out a room in case they let me out of the medical wing for the night, alright?"

"No problem," Harry nodded. "You just worry about getting yourself fixed. We'll handle the rest. See you later."

"Kabuto seems to have such bad luck," Hana said once Kabuto had disappeared from their view, shaking her head. "I hope the Medics can fix him up properly. I mean both him and you were having problems healing the wound up and Kabuto does have a bit of training from the medics back home."

"Well, it was Suna ninja that did the injury in the first place," Harry reminded her as they made their way to where the rooms were in order to pick out some rooms, shower and change clothes if they could before finding something good to eat and drink. "So the Suna medics should know how to treat whatever poisons that might have been on the blade that got him. I only know a few types of poison – mainly of the serpent variety because of Anko-sensei, but I hear that Suna's pretty proficient at poisons so they'd know how to treat them too." Well, he also knew a few magical poisons too. Shame he didn't have a bezoar with him – that would have helped a lot. He made a mental note to see if he could add one in his ninja tool kit when he went out on missions, especially if they were going against Suna ninja. "Anyway, we might as well make ourselves comfortable right? We've got tonight and a whole day to recover before we find out what the next exam is."

"That's true," Hana nodded. "Kabuto said something about the third exam is like a tournament."

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "My guess is though that we'll at least get a bit of time to recover and be back at full strength though before they have us doing one on one battles, so we can show ours skills at equal levels."

"That's good," Hana said, stroking her partner's heads. "Gives us all time to have a rest. We need it."

"Yeah, no kidding," Harry said, rubbing his neck and wincing as his sunburn ached under his fingers. He definitely needed to sort that out – maybe the medics could deal with that. But first thing was first. Shower. He definitely, _definitely_ needed a shower.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The time they had to wait for the rest of the teams to arrive was time well spent, at least in Harry's opinion. He had showered, he no longer felt like he had several layers of grime over his body any more, he had some clean clothes that didn't feel like they had sand in them, though he definitely made note that if he ever came to Suna again he was changing outfits. Or if he spent a long time in a desert, he was cutting the collar off his clothes so it wouldn't act like a sand gathering bowl. He had been fed, had drunk a lot of water and was finally starting to feel more human again. Kabuto had ended up staying with the medics overnight for observation, mainly as a precaution, but Hana had managed to at least give her dog some bandages as support on it' injured leg, though Harry did use mystic hands a few times once he was sure his chakra was up to par to help with the healing a little. It seemed to help though and soon he was back to normal, though still needed the supports as Hana explained the area might still be easily twisted for a little bit without them.

They also did have a brief meeting with the other team that had arrived already too – a Suna team (not really surprising there) consisting of a boy with cloth that covered his head and ears and held on with his forehead protector who used twin fans, a lazy eyed boy with his forehead protector worn as a bandana and wearing more clothing than Harry thought would be normal in somewhere as warm as Suna was, with only his face really being exposed, and a girl who appeared to be some kind of puppet user – or at least that's what he gathered from the bound object on her back that appeared to have hair. Though they didn't seem to inclined to talk other than a nod of acknowledgement.

As it was though, by the time duck came of the last day – the day everyone needed to have got there to pass by midnight, only one more team had arrived – an Iwa team consisting of a rather large boy about Hana's age who looked like he may have been a distant relative of Hagrid, or at least was cut from the same cloth in appearance as he was surprisingly tall, well built and muscular for his age, standing almost double Harry's own height, and Harry was at least average height for his age. He also had a weapon on his back that looked like it might be some kind of iron club. There was a girl who was perhaps about 16 with a sword and the last was a young man that seemed to be saying something about bees. With a jolt, Harry realised that this was the team that his team had passed in the desert that had attacked and killed that team from Taki. Obviously it had taken them a while to find the test to get the last part of their amulet, unlike his own team that had found it purely by chance on their first day due to the sandstorm.

Still, after seeing them (and making a note to avoid them for now as fighting in this place could get them disqualified while waiting for the test to be over), Harry realised that as the clock ticked to twelve, no other teams were arriving. Had the exam been so hard they couldn't manage it? Not that Harry could blame them. Perhaps people had horded. Or maybe they just couldn't find the two parts they need. While he didn't particularly know any of the other teams that had been entered, he could still feel concerned for them either way. Still, there was nothing that could be done. And soon, the test was over. Anyone who hadn't reached the building and was still alive was now disqualified. Harry couldn't help but wonder how many people were disappointed at having failed.

A voice blared over building:

"To everyone who passed the exam, please make your way to the main hall for briefing with the examiners. Thank you."

"Looks like we're all it then…" Harry murmured to Hana as they headed down to the main hall once more. "I sort of expected more. The text was kinda brutal."

"Its probably because of the climate, mostly," Hana agreed. "Only the Suna ninja are really used to it. Makes you wonder why there aren't more Suna teams that passed. You'd think that there would be more people, considering Suna has the home ground."

"Well, we only stumbled on one of our pieces of amulet by accident more than anything," Harry reminded her. "Maybe others just weren't that lucky."

"Maybe….Oh!" Hana blinked as they reached the main hall, where she indicated below. The Kazekage was there, along with the proctors, several Chunin and the Jonin that had lead each team. Harry spotted Shikaku, who looked like he would rather be elsewhere, but offered them a smile anyway when he noticed them looking at him. Quickly, they got into line where Kabuto was already waiting. The older genin still looked a bit pale, his arm was in a sling too, but smiled when they came to stand at his side. "Hana, Taichou-chan."

"Enough with the Taichou thing already," Harry rolled his eyes, but looked him over anyway. "How are you? Feeling better?"

"Mm, a bit. I'll tell you later though," Kabuto said, indicating the front. After this, alright?"

Harry nodded and quickly turned his attention to where the group of officials were standing in wait, waiting to see what they were going to be told now.

Seeing everyone was ready, Satetsu stepped forwards. "Congratulations to all of you that made it through the second exam," the man boomed. "Now you guys all pay attention. The Kazekage will be explaining the third exam to you, so zip your lip and pay attention, got it?" He bowed to the stern faced leader. "Kazekage-sama, if you will."

The Kazekage stepped forward, his dark eyes roaming over the nine ninja that had passed, before nodding and finally spoke. "Before I explain the third exam, I want to tell you the reasoning behind the tests, why you are tested as you are in these Chunin exams. The reason we hold these exams with our allies is to raise the strength of the Shinobi through experience of true battle. These exams simulate the wars that had been fought in the past.

"Back in a time when the nations that are allied now used to fight one another, each nation would pick champions to represent their nations in battle rather than destroy their military strengths. Which is the reason the examinations exist. These days, however, the exams are still used, though in a different manner. While it's true that they are held to allow ninja to show that they have the strength to become Chunin, it is also to allow the ninja to gain strength in true battle, as true strength only comes from being pushed to ones limits in battle, where they fight against other ninja for their very lives, and for the pride of their nations. It also allows the villages to showcase their ninja – the third examination allows people, prominent figures from all over the nations to come and watch the ninja battles, and it may even allow them to decide which village they may want to hire ninja from to work with them.

"You who stand here now are all representing your villages, so you should be sure to act in a manner befitting of your village, as these tests may lay the path of where your ninja career may make its course in the future. If there is a gap in power, more work will go to the stronger nation. This exam allows you to show the strength of the shinobi of your villages to those who may hire from your villages. The Third exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake. Remember this."

That was somewhat daunting, the fact that their very performance in this last exam could actually effect the people who might hire from your village, never mind yourself. However, Harry was nothing if not determined. He'd come this far already. There was no way he was going to back down now. He would make sure to give those people watching a show they wouldn't forget.

"So what are the details to the exam?" the largest Iwa ninja growled out, thumping his meaty fist to his chest. "Whatever you can throw at me, I can handle it."

"Every well. You will now be told the details of the Third exam. Isago," the Kazekage added, indicating to another Jonin who bowed to the Kazekage, before stepped forwards – a stern faced Jonin with the head-dress that some suna ninja wore under his forehead protector, and the standard Jonin outfit.

"I am Isago, and I am the proctor for the third exam," the man said once he has surveyed the nine ninja before him. "Listen closely as I'll be telling you what you need to know, but only once, so bear that in mind that you should not goof off, if you want to know what to expect. The Third exam will be healed in a tournament styled one on one combat, where those who win their fights will move up to the semi finals and then the finals. However, don't feel as though if you do not win your fights, that you lose your chance to become Chunin. In these fights, if you show a great amount of skill, both in power and in strategy, to the various judges that will be watching the battles, including the Kazekage, Hokage and Tsuchikage, even if you lose, you may still have the chance at becoming a Chunin. Likewise even if you win, this doesn't mean that you will have shown you have what it takes to be Chunin. However, note that if none of you show the skills, there is a possibility none of you could ppass. If you all showed the skills needed to become Chunin, you will all be promoted. Therefore, if you want to become Chunin, you will need to showcase all your skills for the chance of promotion. Understood?"

_I see, so it doesn't necessarily matter if you were overpowered in the combat, but if you show you can strategise and use your own strengths correctly, or turn the opponents strengths against them, or even exploit weaknesses correctly, then you have a chance to become Chunin,_ Harry noted. He clenched his fists at his sides. _Still, I didn't come this far to lose out now. So I'll still focus my best efforts on winning too. That way, if I do lose at any point, I'll be sure I did my best, and that's surely to go over better too. If your aiming to win, then you'd focus properly on showing you have the right talents too as well as have more chances to impress the judges with your skills than if you lose in the first fight, I bet. Not to mention fighting ninja from other villages will help me to improve too._

"You will be asked in a moment to draw a number out of a box. Once you have your number, you will show them to me. The number you are given will determine which ninja you will fight in the first round of the exam. After that, you will be given a month to rest from this exam and prepare for the fight against your opponent. This also gives us the chance to announce those who have reached the final exam and will be participating to the villages and to those who will be watching. Any opponents after that first battle will be determined by one on one knock out fights.

"Now, as the Kazekage has said, there will be a great deal of important guests that will be arriving to watch the third exam," Isago continued. "And you will be representing your villages. If you do not feel that you will be able to handle it, that you wont be in top condition at all, or need to pull out for any reason, this is your last chance to do so. If you wish to pull out, raise your hand."

At first, no one did anything. Then, slowly, Kabuto raised his hand.

"What? Kabuto?" Harry looked at him, feeling stunned. "Why are you dropping out? Is it because of your injury? But….we have a month-"

"I'm sorry," Kabuto said, sorrowfully. "But because of the poison that was in it, the medic-ninja advised me that I would need to be careful. The poison can sometimes spark up again if you do anything really intensive for a while. Most of the month I would be recovering still, so I don't think I'd be prepared enough to fight in the exam."

"But you've come so far," Hana insisted.

"I know, and I'm disappointed, but I don't think I'd be able to get too far, at least without showing up the village and I wouldn't want to embarrass anyone. But still, you two will still be there to represent Konoha, and I know that you two can do it. So, give it your all, ok?"

"Yakushi Kabuto of Konohagakure, correct?" Isago interrupted before the rest of the team could say anything, glanced at a clip board that appeared to have the names of all tose who passed the second exam on it. "Yes, the Medic-ninja ,mentioned something about it. Alright, you can bow out."

"Thank you," Kabuto nodded, before heading off once more, disappearing through one of the doors.

"Kabuto…." Even though he understood, kind of, it still didn't make Harry feel any better. The older boy had come so far. That he had to quit now, after it had already taken him so many tries was practically tragic to him. Not to mention that he still felt bad, considering that if they had only kept an eye out just a bit more than they probably could have avoided such an injury.

"Hmph, wimp."

Harry shot the huge Iwa ninja a look. "Zip it." Sure bowing out wouldn't have been something Harry himself would do, but still, there was no need to tease him for it when it had been under medical advice.

"Is there anyone else that wants to quit?" the proctor scanned them. "Last chance."

"Yeah, any more of you leaf ninja want to quit?" the huge Iwa ninja sneered.

"I think you should quit using your mouth," Harry sneered back. "Obviously it isn't in proper connection with your brain."

The Iwa genin's lips twisted into a snarl. "Why you-"

"Enough," Isago snapped. "Any more and you'll both be disqualified."

That at least shut the other genin up. Harry just nodded. "Sorry, sir."

"Alright, if that's everyone, then…." Isago turned to the Kazekage again, the Suna leader handing a box with a hole on top to the man, who turned back once more to them all. "I'll be coming to you, so stay where you are."

"If you could all take a number from the box," the Kazekage said as the proctor came forward. "As Isago stated earlier, this will determined exactly who you will fight in the final exam's first round."

"Just take one," Isago said, and allowed each of the ninja to reach into the box to take one of the numbers on a slip of paper. Eventually, he came to Harry, who also reached in and pulled out a slip of paper, carefully unfolding it to see exactly what number he had received. It appeared he was number two.

Putting the box aside, Isago looked around again. "Now tell me what your number is, going from left to right. Afterwards, I will inform you of the match ups." It took a few moments, but finally all the numbers were called and Isago noted each one down."

"Now, if you please – revel which ninja have been pared up," the Kazekage said, and the man nodded and flipped the board to show, as they has said, a tournament style match up system. With numbers one and two fighting each other, three and four, five and six together and seven and eight last of all. Since Harry was two, he had a look to see the person he was matched again.

Whether it had been by fate or luck, number one was actually the boy who had sneered at them earlier on – the huge Iwa genin who seemed to look at Harry with a vicious grin. It appeared the boy's name was Kikou Onichi. Number three was a Suna ninja named Yakku (the one Harry recalled with the eyes that seemed stuck at permanent half mast), who appeared to be fighting number four - the Suna ninja with two fans who was apparently named Yosuzume. Number Five was the female Iwa ninja with a sword named Yaiba Tsubame, who appeared to be against the female Suna ninja with the puppet – a girl named Mihoshi – who was number six. While Number seven was the last Iwa ninja named Kamizuru Mubachi and battling against Hana, who was number eight.

"Now that you know who you're fighting," Isago continued. Be sure to train hard. The exams will begin once more in one month, on the 20th of August, and the exams will begin at 1000 hours. But for now, congratulations for passing the second exam, and thank you for your patience. Dismissed."

As the genin all started to go their separate ways, mostly to speak to their Jonin sensei that had started to approach them, Harry and Hana made their way over to Shikaku, who had begun to saunter unhurriedly to them. Smiling, the scarred man patted both of them on the head. "Well done for getting this far. It was probably troublesome as hell, but you got here. Shame about Kabuto though. But don't worry about him. He'll be back up to scratch and I'm sure he'll do fine next time."

"He has awful luck with these exams, doesn't he?" Hana agreed. "I mean, he mentioned before, didn't he, that he's already tried to get through these exams several times. He wasn't kidding when he said it would be rough, though."

"It's a pain, but that's sometimes how these exams go," Shikaku agreed. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know that some arrangements have been made about teaching you for the last exam. Or at least to arrange with you a teacher if you need someone. Anko pretty much told me she arranged someone to teach you for when you passed the second exam. Obviously she expected that you would get this far."

"Didn't realise she had that much faith in me," Harry couldn't help but grin. "I'll have to buy her something when I get back. Dango, maybe. Or something sharp and pointy, she seems to like that kind of stuff too." He frowned when exactly what the Nara has said sunk in. "Wait, she arranged a tutor for me? You mean that she isn't teaching me herself?"

"Apparently she says there are things you need to know that she can't teach you. So she has got Hatake Kakashi to come to tutor you for the month. Apparently he owed her something and she decided to collect. But your teacher's a troublesome one, so who knows what she had on him to get him to agree. Either way, he'll probably be a bit late so you might as well relax a while in Suna until he gets here. Hana, I sent a message back to Konoha concerning yourself as well, and it appears that your mother wished to help arrange your tutor. So, once Tsume and Kakashi get here, I'll be taking Kabuto back to Konoha again and we can make sure his injury gets fully healed up as well without any complications. So, rest up tonight and we'll be relocating back out of this place and back to Suna again tomorrow morning. Kakashi and Tsume will meet you both there."

"OK," the two nodded.

"I'm going to head to bed then, since it looks like its going to be a long month," Hana said as she stretched, One of the Haimaru yawning as well. "What about you?"

"I just want to ask Kabuto something, actually," Harry noted, glancing in the direction that the white haired ninja had gone after he had bowed out of the exam. "After that, I'll turn in too."

"Alright," Hana nodded. "But don't be too hard on him, ok, Taichou?"

"Who, me?" Harry blinked innocently. "Nah, nothing like that. Its about something else. Don't worry though, I promise I'll behave."

"Good," Hana nodded, smiling as she ruffled the Uchiha's hair, despite Harry's protests. "See you in the morning, Taichou-chan!"

"Enough with the Taichou-chan already!" Harry called after her, exasperated. Honestly, was he going to be stuck with that moniker forever now or something? Still, she shook his head a moment before detouring towards the medical rooms once more in order to track down Kabuto. It didn't take him too long to find the older boy, sitting on one of the beds and glancing at the Valley of Illusions outside the window which seemed disarmingly peaceful under the moonlight. "Hey Kabuto."

Kabuto tensed a little before glancing over, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly with his free hand. "Oh, Taichou-chan," he chuckled sheepishly, ignoring Harry's tick at the nickname. "You surprised me for a moment." He dropped his hand again, smile becoming a little tinged with sadness. "Have you come to yell at me for dropping out as I did?"

"What, no, don't be stupid," Harry scoffed. "I mean, yeah I'm kinda pissed off that you couldn't join us in the third exam and all, but it wasn't your fault you got stabbed with a poisonous blade. Still, it must bite that the medics said it was better if you didn't continue."

"Yeah," Kabuto sighed. "But at least if I dropped out then I had a chance to fully recover and try again, instead of making a fool of myself in front of the judges. And anyway, I have faith in you and Hana. I'm sure you'll be Chunin in no time."

"Speaking about Chunin," Harry made his way to one of the seats by the bed. "You know those Ninja info cards of yours? Do you think you have any information on Kikou Onichi?"

Kabuto looked at him for a long moment, before pulling out the cards. "Kikou Onichi…." He murmured. "I'm assuming that is who you're going to be facing in the first round of the third exam?"

"Yeah," Harry frowned. "And seems pretty arrogant too, or at least seems under the impression Konoha ninja are weak. Then again, the guy's huge too. If we're going by pure muscle alone, anyone could be considered weak."

"Let me see," Kabuto said as he took one of the cards and spun it carefully with his finger, injecting chakra into it. There was a poof of smoke that Harry came to expect when Kabuto used these cards, and the black face was now covered with the stats of the Iwa ninja, complete with mug shot. "OK, Kikou Onichi from Iwagakure no Sato, sixteen years old and has been a Genin for three years. Has completed 14 D ranks and 9 C ranked missions. His speciality is a clan ninjutsu that creates a kind of stone armour of some kind that's difficult to penetrate. Combined with that iron club of his and it's a fairly formidable combination."

"So, this armour of his, it covers everything?" Harry asked, trying to think exactly what he could do against this guy. If he had a few plans in the works now, then at least he would be able to have a few ideas of what to do when facing him without having to make it all up on the spot – the better informed he was, the better he would show himself to be in front of the judges too.

"Well, his vitals at any rate," Kabuto shrugged. "But normally people don't want to get too close to a guy swinging a club around and according to his data he can swing that thing around as fast as if he were flinging around a bo staff. But if you can get around that, then his limbs at least appear to be uncovered at least in places so that he can move around. Guess they realise a moving target is harder to hit than a sitting one." He glanced over, his dark eyes searching his face through his round glasses. "So, what do you think you should do?"

"Well, I'll definitely chat to Hatake Kakashi about it all," Harry shrugged. "Looks like he's going to be tutoring me. Other than that….While we're waiting for our tutors to arrive, do you think that you can finish teaching me the Chakra no Mesu that you were showing me on the way to Suna? If nothing else, I want to be as solid as I can with that before I do other training. I think I'll find some use for that too."

Kabuto just blinked, bemused. "What, now?"

"If you're not tired, old man," Harry teased.

Kabuto rolled his eyes. "Alright, I can spare a bit of time tonight. I can show you the rest tomorrow too until Hatake-san arrives for you as well. It should be easy to find some things to practice on while I'm in a hospital after all, since the medical ninja need to practice on something after all."

Harry grinned. "Fine by me."

"Alright then. Now, where were we…?"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

While sleep had been late in coming (or far too early in the morning, as Kabuto had joked when Harry had finished the exercises for the Chakra no Mesu that night and realised the time), Harry, despite having shadows under his eyes and yawning every now and then, was quite content with the progress he had made.

Since they had finally been able to fully concentrate without the problems they had had when Kabuto was tutoring him on it on the way to Suna, such as not needing to squint through sand flurries to see what each other were doing or yell themselves horse to be heard over the winds, Kabuto had been able to knuckle down, even with one arm in a sling, to make sure Harry started to get the hang of the jutsu, and proved to be quite a competent teacher, something Harry never would have imagined from the first impression that Harry had got of him in the Hokage's office when he had thought that Kabuto might have been some kind of weird Uchiha Fanboy. He had allowed Harry to copy the hand seals with his Sharingan to save them some time, which Harry was glad he didn't have to trick him into doing otherwise, and had told him a few tricks. Since Kabuto was under orders from the Medics to take it easy lest there was still poison in his system, he had suggested to Harry to practice on Shadow Clones so that he knew how to use it when fighting with a moving target. It was somewhat annoying as they could only really take one good hit (if he was doing the jutsu correctly) before they dispelled, but it did get him used to striking while not getting hit right back and would be far more reasonable to strike fatal blows on rather than trying to practice on a real person and causing irreparable damage or something. Not to mention far more ethical than using the local wildlife too. Kabuto also promised to have a word with some of the medical ninja too, to see if he could get Harry a dummy that was used to practice medical jutsu on, at least for him to take with him once Kakashi had arrived, so that Harry could practice on it while on his month of training and get a feel for muscles might react to Harry's Chakra no Mesu too.

All in all, Harry was quite pleased by the results of their short training session. Despite first impressions and lingering disappointment at Kabuto's terrible fortune, he was pleased that he finally got passed the theory they had talked about on the way to Suna and had finally gotten around to the basic combat usage of Chakra no Mesu, especially since Harry had a feeling it would come in useful in the battles to come.

Once morning had come, the genin were finally lead out of the valley once more, glad to see the back of the place that had been hell for the last few days and back to the village once more. Kabuto had been escorted to the main hospital so that they could be doubly sure that everything had been covered by the field medics that had been at the Valley of Illusion's outpost. Meanwhile, Harry spent most of the morning after watching as the failed candidates started to leave the valley too, most looking dejected or bitter or angry about the fact that they hadn't passed, while others, such as the Jonin, were grim faced at the body bags that had been brought out for those genin who hadn't survived the 13th training ground at all. Harry couldn't help but grimace, knowing that at least two of those bags had ninja killed by the Basilisk, and he had no idea if the one that had been Petrified had been written off as dead or taken by the medic ninja to look for some way to reverse the Petrifaction.

Once more, Harry made a mental note to learn how to make the Mandrake Restorative, if only to help reverse what he had essentially ordered to be done, though considering the rest of his team was dead, part of him wondered if it wouldn't be a mercy to leave him as a human statue, assuming he hadn't been broken or just written off as dead in the first place.

The majority of the stay in Suna just waiting for their teacher's had been surprisingly boring, though Harry did make the most of it. He sparred with Hana a few times in one of the genin training grounds that they had been permitted to use (according to Temari who had checked in with the Kazekage for permission for them, they were allowed to use the genin training grounds so long as there was no property damage and if there was then they would have to clear up after themselves) and had checked in with Kabuto, who had happily passed over a scroll to him that had one of the dummies sealed inside. Harry had no idea how he had managed it, but Kabuto had insisted it had all been done legally – and apparently these dummies were standard for any Medic from any village, so there was no horrible trade secret he was making off with. Still, Harry left the medics with a donation anyway and a thanks, which deed seem to help make them a little less petulant about the whole thing.

Honestly, Harry just didn't want to have a bunch of medics that would be annoyed at him – Medic ninja were like Oinin – they knew how to mess you up. Considering that he was going to be taking part in the third exam here in Suna he would rather remain on their good sides.

Other than that, the only really interesting thing was a second (though brief) encounter with Gaara, though this time in board daylight where Gaara had walked right up to him in the streets (where people backed off as one as soon as they realised who it was and started whispering fearfully to each other in a way that made Harry's eyebrow tick as he recalled people, though to a lesser extent, acting in a similar manner around Naruto and had stopped in front of Harry, who resolutely ignored the sudden whispers about if the Konoha ninja would survive unscathed.

"Yo," Harry smiled to Gaara, ignoring the hissed whispers that blazed around them like a forest fire at his casual greeting of the village pariah. "Nice to see you again."

Gaara didn't really react to that other than a long look in his direction. Finally, "I heard you passed the first and second exams," Gaara said quietly. "Congratulations."

"Thanks, Gaara," Harry grinned. "Hopefully I'll get to Chunin too. Fingers crossed, right?"

Gaara nodded, before moving on once more, only to stop and glance back. "…I'll be watching you at the Third Exam," the redhead said after a moment, before finally walking away once more.

"W-wow…..Gaara didn't try to kill him…." He heard someone say close by.

Rolling his eyes, Harry turned to them. "I can hear you, you kn…..What the heck are you wearing?" he couldn't help but blurt out as he stared at the boy who had spoken. At least, he thought he was a boy, but with the weird black, heavy looking outfit complete with jet black head-dress that looked almost like he had cat ears poking up underneath it (who wears such a thing in a desert anyway? Didn't he get hot in that thing?) and the war paint like pattern on his face that looked like some odd character in a Kabuki Theatre play that probably used more makeup than his Aunt Mikoto had worn her entire life it was really hard to say. He assumed that it was a boy though, from his voice.

"Hey!" the boy growled. "This is the outfit of a puppeteer of Sunagakure! Don't mock it!"

"Aren't you hot in that thing though?" he asked, eyeing him. "I mean, it's a desert, surely something lighter coloured or at least less heavy material would be more comfortable right?"

"I guess the reason you didn't do anything when Gaara came was because you're missing some brain cells," the boy murmured petulantly.

"Well, I wouldn't disagree with you," Harry admitted, After all, Anko had knocked him around enough times that he wasn't surprised he came across a little screwy. "But at least they aren't fried. Why the cat ears anyway? And who are you again?"

"They are not cat ears! And my name is Kankuro."

"If you say so," Harry shrugged. "Anyway, Ja ne," he shrugged, gave a wave and headed off once more, though he couldn't help but feel sorry for Gaara if that was how the people in Suna reacted to him. No wonder he thought he was some kind of monster. He did make a mental note to send him a few letters though, maybe introduce him to Naruto and Sasuke when they came to watch him in the third exam. The kid needed a few friends.

Of course, next time he saw Gaara he would have to let him know though. He didn't want Manji or Houzenka getting hit by overprotective sand after all.

It was about midday the day after Harry's second run in with Gaara and meeting Kankuro when the teachers who would be tutoring Harry and Hana for the third exam finally arrived and were presented to them by Shikaku (who had apparently made sure that one of them, at least, was on time for once. Either that or he had been late and they just hadn't been aware of it due to not knowing what time the Jonin would show up). Inuzuka Tsume was a wild looking woman with hair that rivalled Harry's own in messiness, with sharp looking eyes and red pained lips. However, there were a few things that resembled her daughter. Much like Hana and the rest of the Inuzuka, Tsume has the red 'fang' like markings on each cheek, and her face shape, along with her hair colour and skin tone looked much like Hana. Though Hana's appearance seemed far tamer than Tsume's wilder presence, it was easy to see they were mother and daughter. She, unlike Hana, had a single dog partner named Kuromaru, an impressive sized and rather intimidating wolfish canine that appeared to have gone through many battles, bearing an eye patch and missing an ear as well. However, he didn't seem at all bothered by it. Though it was a surprise to hear the dog actually talk, in a language that Harry understood, in order to greet them.

It took all his pride as an Uchiha not to gape at it. He seriously needed to pay more attention to the other clans from now on, he didn't really like feeling blindsided by such things.

Hatake Kakashi was someone Harry easily recognised, however, as he had passed the man quite often during his training sessions with Anko, often seeing the man standing near the monument. He also knew the man a little by reputation as more than once he recalled he had witnessed many an ninja complain about his perpetual lateness (even some Uchiha in the past, well, back when there were more Uchiha than himself and Sasuke, of course). Much like Tsume, he had hair that seemed to have a life of its own, though silver in colour, and had very little skin showing other than perhaps a quarter of his face that wasn't hidden by either a slanted Hitae ate or a face mask that covered his nose and mouth and a little bit of his arm and fingers that weren't covered by sleeves or gloves respectively. And while he looked at Harry with a spark of curiosity in his deep grey eye, he looked like he preferred to be anywhere but there right now.

"OK you two, these guys will be your teachers for the exam. Tsume here will be arranging Hana's training, and Kakashi will be training Harry. Just be sure not to bring him to the exams late though, Kakashi, it'll be Troublesome if the first match will have to get postponed or something."

"Don't worry, I can handle it," Kakashi said.

"Good. Well, I'm going to help Kabuto get back to Konoha. I'll leave them in your capable hands – good luck with the third exam, you two," he added, before vanishing in a poof of smoke.

"I'll see you at the exam then," Hana said, giving Harry a smile. "Train hard but take care of yourself."

"Will do. See you then, Hana. And you three, too, of course," he added to the Haimaru brothers, who barked, tails wagging in appreciation before the Inuzuka's left, leaving Harry to turn his attention to the Jonin that would be training him.

"So, you're Anko's prized student then?" Kakashi said after a moment of uncomfortable silence where all they had really done was look at each other awkwardly. Maybe he hadn't been sure how to start off a conversation with a Genin he wasn't testing for the graduation exam – something Harry was actually somewhat grateful he wasn't doing – he'd heard rumours that he hadn't actually passed a team yet.

"I don't know about 'prized', since I don't think Anko-sensei has even had another student, but Anko's my teacher." Harry shrugged, though he couldn't help but feel a little pleased that Anko, for all her teasing and Spartan, sadistic training ways, had some pride in him as a student outside of their shared love of Dango and serpents (or in Harry's case, at least serpents that he wasn't forced to milk for poison's for the Nara's on missions, of course).

"She asked me to train you up for the third exam - I have a few skills that I can teach you that might be useful for the third exam that Anko isn't really able to do," Kakashi explained. "Anyway, before we get started, let's get to know each other a little bit, since we're going to be together for a month. It'll help me at least to work out what to expect from you."

"You mean other than perhaps some insanity from dealing with Anko on a regular basis?" Harry couldn't help but joke, though was somewhat curious as to what the odd recognising spark in Kakashi's eye had been after his bout of humour. He shook it off, however. "Sure. I'm assuming you'd rather we didn't talk about it in the hall though."

"Let's go to the roof. We can talk there."

With that, he vanished too. Sighing and clearing away the smoke with a wave of his hand, Harry had to wonder why there were ninja that had to Shunshin everywhere. Shrugging though, he made his way up to the roof.

The roof itself wasn't very fancy, just a flat top like many of the regular buildings in Suna. Still, it had a slightly raised wall, so Harry had something to sit on while Kakashi stood before him.

"Well, our sensei only told me a few things about you, so, let's get to know each other."

"Any particular way?" Harry asked, glancing up at him. "Anko likes to get to know people by throwing sharp and pointy objects at them and generally freaking out everyone in a mile radius, but I'm going to assume that's not quite what you meant."

It was amusing to see the sweat drop appear, as Kakashi coughed into a hand, obviously trying to keep on topic rather than begin a discussion about Anko's….tendencies. "No, not quite like that. Just tell me a little about yourself, you know, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, that kind of thing."

"Seems like a more normal way to go about it," Harry agreed. "Hm….alright. Well, you know who I am, I'd assume. I like dango, my friends and family, I don't like traitors. My hobbys would be looking after my brothers, playing pranks and training." He decided not to mention the magic thing just yet. True he had mentioned it to his team, but it had been some harsh circumstances, and Anko might have already told Kakashi. "Dreams….well, I don't particularly have a dream. Except maybe to become strong enough to protect my family and friends, especially from….certain people. What about you?"

There seemed to be something of an approving glint in the Jonin's eye "You're a lot like him, you know," he said after a moment, though Harry was unsure if he was supposed to have hear the comment or not. "Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi. I like some things and I don't like others and my dream is….never mind."

Harry felt his eyebrow tick. "You know, a little information that I didn't already know would be nice." He bit out.

"I'm sure you'll find out more about me over the training," Kakashi shrugged. "Anyway, you should get what you need for a month of training and meet me at the gates. We have a lot of work to do, after all. You better be prepared for whatever I decide to throw at you."

As Kakashi disappeared, Harry had a feeling that things were going to be either interesting, frustrating, or something else. He did have to wonder who this 'him' was though….

Still, he nodded and darted off to get what he needed. He had a month to train for the Chunin exams and he wanted to make the most of everything.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Training with Kakashi wasn't quite what he imagined. The man seemed to know quite a lot, but getting information out of him was sometimes like trying to get blood from a rock with a Styrofoam syringe. The first thing they had done was spar, since Kakashi apparently wanted to see what level he had been on, but had brought out a book he had only ever seen in the Hokage's possession before – Icha Icha Paradise. He could only hope that pervert wasn't something that was catching. But what had really annoyed him was that he had the nerve to try and read it while fighting him.

However, Harry soon found a way to get the man to pay attention. An Accio soon had the book flying over into his hands.

"Stop fooling around and teach me already!" Harry growled. "If you don't, I'm holding this book hostage until you actually do! And if you don't, I'm setting it on fire. I need to train for the chunin exam, stop fooling around!"

He changed his tune pretty fast after that. Though it did take a while of the man hugging his book to him and murmuring about how Harry had picked up some cruel tendencies from Anko before he did. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Honestly, it wasn't that cruel, was it?

After that though, things had gone much more smoothly.

After explaining what they would be expecting from Kikou Onichi, Kakashi came up with several things that he would teach Harry. The first surprised him, especially when he found out the man had the Sharingan under his Hitae ate of all things.

No wonder the Uchiha had never been that respectful about the guy. But Kakashi assured him that it had been a gift from an Uchiha team mate he had had in the past. However, he decided one of the things to teach Harry would be to utilise his sharingan. While most of it was instinctual, there was one part of it that would benefit from having an actual Sharingan tutor – genjutsu. Now, Harry readily admitted that he wasn't a Genjutsu specialist, focusing more on taijutsu and ninjutsu (as well as magic) than Genjutsu and only really knew the basics. However, Kakashi assured him that it could be of a great help to him.

Harry spent a few rather fun days when he had started to get the basics of this when they had gone into a nearby town and Harry had been tasked to practice a little harmless genjutsu, which had definitely interested his inner prankster. So during those times he amused himself by causing those that met his Sharingan eyes to bump into things they assured sceptical people around them hadn't been there, or tricked a few men to walk into the ladies bathroom, amusing himself at the cries of protest and the red hand shape marks on the cheeks of the men as they scrambled out once more. While Harry didn't want to always rely on his Sharingan for things, especially considering the basilisk rendered sight based anything too dangerous, he could see the point that Kakashi made to be sure to know how to use it fully for when he didn't have to be so concerned about sight so he could fight in any kind of situation. Not to mention he honestly found he quite enjoyed using Genjutsu far more than he had thought he would and made a to ask Anko at some point to teach him some non-Sharingan related Genjutsu too. Since she could be quite sadistic, he wouldn't be surprised if she had one or two up her sleeve, or at least knew someone who had expertise in the subject.

When not training his Sharingan eyes, Kakashi focused on helping Harry to increase his speed by focusing chakra to his legs and using it as a springboard to increase his speed or to help swiftly change direction, as this would be good to use along side the Chakra no Mesu, especially if he wanted to avoid that dangerous Iron club that Onichi seemed to be able to use expertly.

He also taught Harry a few more things. Firstly he taught him the Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu, a jutsu that allowed the user to tunnel underground and yank a target under ground leaving only their heads visible. It had been a little difficult, but with the help of Sharingan and pure stubbornness, despite him not having an earth alignment, he managed to pull it off. He also taught him how to summon lots of smaller sized snakes rather than one large one. While Kakashi had a contract with nin-dogs, not snakes, it was still something that was helpful to know. After all, one large snake could be seen as one big target. Several smaller but no less deadly ones could give him a bit more of an advantage, though this was something of a hit or miss guesswork between them, considering the differing natures between the serpents and the nin-dogs. However, they managed to cover some of this.

Kakashi also taught him one last jutsu as well, though he was warned that it wasn't a jutsu he should use too often – Chidori. A jutsu that Kakashi himself created and was supposed to be used for assassination (though Harry couldn't see how considering it was noisy and flashed around lightning chakra quite a bit – maybe it was used to assassinate the blind and deaf?), it could tear through almost anything in its path. Kakashi made sure to warn him though that he should only use it to protect outside of these Chunin exams, and that he should only really use it if he was struggling to get through Onichi's thick armour. Harry took the words to heart though. A jutsu to protect….he liked the thought of this and thanked Kakashi profusely, even though training to use it often left Harry needing to use Shousen on his own arms which generally ended up scratched quite a bit every time he forced his Chidori covered hand through stone. The jutsu did need something of a running start though, which was another reason that Kakashi thought it wise for him to increase his speed. Normally, he informed him one day when they had stopped to take a break, the jutsu would have created a kind of tunnel vision effect too, but considering the nature of the Sharingan, those with said bloodline could bypass that problem. Kakashi's main concern was that he could only do it for a limited amount of time; otherwise he could accidentally drain his own life force away.

Currently he could only use it a few times a day safely, but Kakashi told him that as long as he didn't accidentally kill himself and kept an eye on his chakra levels, he would be able to increase the usage of it. He bore that in mind for the future, but considering it was something of a last resort for the Chunin exams unless he wanted to accidentally kill anyone without armour, which seemed to be everyone but Onichi, he couldn't see himself needing it more than those few times.

Between the times when he wasn't training with Kakashi, eating or sleeping, Harry also made sure to bring out that practice doll that Kabuto had given him to practice his Chakra no Mesu, usually during the times when Kakashi needed to rest, normally if he used his Sharingan too often. That was something that bemused Harry – he had never felt overly tired after using his Sharingan all day, but Kakashi would crash if he used it for even an hour. He had to wonder if it had anything to do with the fact it was always active under the headband, or if it was because he wasn't of Uchiha blood (as disappointed as he had been to find out he didn't have another relative). Still, while Kakashi rested, Harry made sure to refine the medical jutsu, or to practice using it against several clones, if he had the chakra to spare at that point.

Harry actually couldn't help but feel that the month had been rather well spent, even though he had spent his thirteenth birthday in the middle of a Suna Desert. He couldn't help but smile as he remembered it though.

…**Flashback…**

They had just sat down for the day after having started the first practice with the Chidori when the two Sharingan users spotted something…..odd in the sky. It had taken them a moment before they realised that odd shape had been flying towards them and the two had tensed – thankfully it had been nothing to worry about as, once they came out of the sun somewhat Harry could finally work out what they were.

Owls.

Harry blinked. Two of the owls he recognised straight away, the female with the red and brown plumage like fire was Houzenka, while the black one with a white cross like marking on its chest had to be his other owl, Manji. However, he didn't recognise the other owls. There was a rather handsome tawny owl and, between it and his own owls, was carrying an owl that looked dead at first glance except it was breathing fairly weakly. It took him a moment to realise exactly who it was – Errol, the Weasley family owl. Harry cursed slightly under his breath. The owl was old and frail and had failed deliveries on occasion – he remembered that Ron had explained that last year when his letters were being taken by Dobby the house elf that they had originally assumed it had been the fault of Errol rather than anything else. He was actually surprised it had survived the flight all the way from England to the Hidden continents and hadn't been killed by a ninja – he could only assume that his owls had managed to save him. That or they had been extremely lucky.

"Owls?" Kakashi blinked, bemused.

"Yeah, Wizards use owls rather than hawks," Harry explained as he made room for the birds to perch on the rocks they had been using to rest on. "Most are stronger than you'd think, though the grey one, Errol is on his last legs. You'd think that they'd let the poor thing retire, but the Weasley family are pretty damned poor, so I'm going to assume they couldn't afford another one or something. I'll have to make sure that they don't try to sent me things with Errol though otherwise the thing's not going to survive."

"Is this one of those Voodoo things of yours?" the Jonin asked, frowning. Harry snickered slightly. Ever since he had managed to summon Kakashi's book from him, no matter where he hid it in order to hold it hostage if Kakashi ever did anything like starting training off hours later than he should to vanish off to who knew where, he had something of a dislike for magic, even though he could grudgingly see what the Hokage allowed him to vanish off to Hogwarts for nine months at a time. (not to mention try to keep it a low profile when he could). Didn't mean that he enjoyed having his Icha Icha stolen and hidden by a few wand flicks and a few unknown words that he couldn't copy.

"Yes, its more 'Voodoo' stuff," Harry rolled his eyes. "Hey, I don't suppose you know any way of easing Errol's suffering a bit while I work out what's in all these letters and parcels that are my birthday gifts, would you?"

"You mean other than putting it out of its misery?" Kakashi asked, cocking a brow at him.

"Yes, other than that," Harry drawled back, chuckling slightly. For all the jokes though, Kakashi did take the bird quite gently and help to get some water down its beak, but to the bird's relief from its grateful hoot. With that, Harry removed the gifts from the other birds and managed to conjure water into some bowls for the other birds to get some rest too. The Owl that had been carrying his Hogwart's letter for the year stayed only long enough to drink deeply before taking off again as if it wanted to be anywhere but the Ninja territories, though Manji and Houzenka happily accepted drinks before taking a good long rest, enjoying the petting they got from their master also. With the owls seen too, Harry turned his attention back to the gifts he had been given.

Grabbing the first package he had taken – the one belonging to Errol, Harry opened the present and smiled at the envelope that had a birthday card in it, bit had to blink, startled, at the gift that, within the paper bag had been wrapped in gold of all things. Hoping that that would be explained, considering he was well aware of the Weasley's money problems, Harry opened the envelope which, as well as holding his birthday card also had two peaces of paper inside – a letter and what looked like a newspaper clipping.

Pulling the clipping out of the envelope first and putting a rock on top of the other papers so they wouldn't fly away in the wind, he glanced at it. It had clearly come from a wizard newspaper, since it had moving pictures on it – a picture of the Weasley family standing in front of a pyramid of all things, the adults in the back with some of the brother's either side, with Ron in the middle with an arm around Ginny, his sister, and had his lazy pet rat Scabbers sitting on his shoulder. Feeling even more bemused, he read the actual article, hoping that that would finally offer the explanation he was looking for.

**_MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE _**

**_Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. _**

**_A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."_**

**_The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend. _**

Ah, so that was the reason for the hints of extravagance, though personally he thought that the first thing they should have bought was a new owl, but this was a civilian family, magical or otherwise, so he shouldn't have been surprised. While he was certainly happy for them, he did hope they had been at least a little practical and stored some of the money away to save for a later date, for example when Errol finally kicked the bucket.

Still, he shook off that thought and exchanged the clipping for the letter that Ron had sent.

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Happy birthday! I hope that everything is going alright in Japan and you actually get this letter instead of having House elves stopping your main. That would be really annoying for you if it happened again, right?_**

**_It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff_**

**_I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this holiday. Thanks to you paying for the new wander after you broke the last one, we've even got a bit left over too. Hopefully it means I can get some new things this year. Of course, the fact we still have our memories is much better than not having them and still having my old wand. I'll tell you about it when we're back at school though._**

**_We'll be back in England about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get our new books and things for the year. Any chance you'll be able to get a portkey over then so we can meet you there?_**

**_Hope your summer job doesn't get you down._**

**_Try to come to London,_**

**_Ron_**

**_PS: The twins say hi as well and have also added a present for you that they found from somewhere as well. It should be wrapped up with my gift in the other parcel. _**

**_PPS: Percy's Head Boy. He got his letter last week._**

So that's what it was. He had thought Percy looked rather smug even in the black and white photograph. As he took another glance at the photo though, he noticed the badge sitting proudly on his chest. Though what the point of wearing it while not even ay Hogwarts seemed weird to him.

Shaking his head, he unwrapped the present that Ron had got for him, feeling somewhat bemused by the fact he had what looked like a miniature child's spinning top that stood on its point on his hand despite it not spinning and appeared to be made of glass. Curious, he glanced at the note that came with it for some kind of explanation.

**_Harry — this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup. _**

**_Bye — Ron_**

Snickering a little at the thought – boy did he love those two guys – he passed the note over to Kakashi who had been looking at it from over his shoulder. "That's kind of useful actually," Harry mused. "Didn't know he had it in him."

"Indeed. Maybe we should see if we can get one for the Hokage?" Kakashi suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," Harry agreed. While it would be annoying if he ever played any tricks on the old man it did seem like something that would be useful for the Hokage to have. He bore that in mind. Maybe he'd lend him his Sneakascope while he was away on missions or something.

There was another package too from the Weasely twins, as Ron had mentioned in his letter, who had given him some spells that could be used for pranks that he decided to keep for another time though.

(He did end up a few days later testing one out after he had once more had to hold the Icha Icha hostage from Kakashi once more, which somehow managed to turn the Icha Icha into a cod fish. Harry couldn't help but laugh hysterically while Kakashi freaked out about it, but did manage to transfigure it back again. The only problem was that the girl on the cover somehow wouldn't change back fully and seemed to stubbornly want to remain a mermaid instead like the kind on cartoons rather than the real life kinds. But considering that Mermaids traditionally wore nothing but a sea shell bra or their own hair to keep modesty, the Jonin didn't seem to upset by that little mistake. Though he did clutch his Icha Icha like a lifeline and seemed like he would break down into hysterics if he even looked like he was going to summon the book again to himself, so he decided to keep the other spells for another time unless he wanted to risk making Kakashi have a minor breakdown or something)

Putting his gifts from the Weasley to one side, the next gift he picked up was the one that Manji had brought to him and held the message and what looked like a containment scroll. Obviously these gifts had been brought from Konoha. Quickly, he released what was contained in the scroll, which revealed two letters and two parcels. The first letter was from Naruto and Sasuke, but he was surprised to find the other letter was from Anko. He had half been expecting that Housenka might have had the gift from her. Putting aside his curiosity at what Houzenka might have brought him, he instead turned his attention to the letters from his brothers first.

**_Dear Harry,_**

**_Happy Birthday!_**

**_I hope that the training is going well! Anko, that weird teacher of yours came by to let us know you got into the third exams and have the chance to make Chunin. We're allowed to come and see how you do on the third exam too, Anko's going to be taking us so we can come and watch. _**

**_Since the exams were going to be in Suna, Naruto and I put our heads together to work out what to get you and decided on a new outfit, so you don't fry out in the desert heat and, in Naruto's words, you'll 'look cool kicking ass'. Don't worry though, I made sure there's no orange on the outfit. Yes, I can hear your sigh of relief. _**

**_Hope you like the present and We'll see you soon._**

**_Sasuke, _**

_**And Naruto** _

(This part was written in Naruto's untidy scrawl rather than Sasuke's painfully neat penmanship, before switching back to Sasuke once again for the postscript)

**_PS: Naruto said he's still struggling with his Kanji, so he asked me to do the writing. Personally I think it's because he's annoyed I vetoed the Orange coloured lyrca outfit that he was going to send to you instead._**

Thanking whatever god it was that had helped Sasuke stop that monstrosity on time, Harry carefully opened the package from his brothers and, as Sasuke had said, not a spot of orange on it (much to his relief). Instead, he was presented with a white collared zip up gi like shirt with an Uchiha symbol on one of the long sleeves as well as the back (so he could wear his Chunin vest without having to worry about the clan symbol not being on view, according to a small note pinned on it), a black obi, black ninja trousers and black ninja sandals, with some white bandages to wrap at his ankles and thigh for his Kunai pouch so it wouldn't chafe. All of it made from strong, durable, but light weight material, perfect for the exams. But his brothers were certainly right. He thought he was going to look really cool in them. He was going to have to thank them next time he saw them.

He folded the clothes up for now. He would definitely wear them on the examination day. No need to make them all dirty or sweaty during training after all.

He then turned to Anko's letter, unsure. After all, he wasn't sure if Anko could do something as normal as send a letter, but apparently she could. He checked it over with his Sharingan, looking for traps and the like, but saw nothing. Tentatively, he unfolded the letter and started to read.

**_Happy Birthday, Midori-me,_**

**_Yeah, don't look so shocked, I can actually send a normal, non-trap-covered letter – admittedly I wanted to send a trap covered letter but that bird of yours wouldn't carry it at all unless it was normal. You've got that owl trained well, guess I should be glad your mail can't get booby trapped. _**

**_You got to the Third Exam, congrats, brat! Good job you did otherwise that favour I called in would have gone to waste. Say Hi to Kakashi for me, by the way. Make sure you make Chunin Uchiha, then I don't have to have the Hokage moan at me about my training methods and you don't have to run laps around the Forest of Death with the Fire Country Tigers._**

**_I've even got you a present – aren't I a nice Sensei? We finished analysing that basilisk skin you left for us and it looks like they have a decent amount of armour too them while being flexible too – so I've got you some gloves that you can use, to help prevent injury if you need to do something like performing a blade catch or stop another big snake from trying to eat you before you can convince it to be your friend._**

**_I'll be heading to Suna with the brat brigade to check out how you do in the exams, so I'll see you then_**

**_You're beloved Sensei,_**

**_Anko_**

**_PS: make sure you look to see where the best Dango is in Suna for your celebration party once you're Chunin_**

Harry pulled out the gift she had given him, the basilisk hide gloves. They closely resembled the kind Kalashi wore, only black. When he slipped them on, they felt surprisingly comfortable as well. Crazy as Anko could be, she certainly had some style, even if she had a strange dress sense where it was only herself concerned. She seemed pretty convinced he was going to pass too. He would just have to prove her right – he certainly didn't want to end up doing laps with those tigers chasing after him if he was to fail, it was definitely a good motivation to pass his last test.

The done, he turned to the present and letter that had confused him. To his surprise, he recognised the hand writing as that of Hermione. Wondering whether his brothers had sent Hozenka to his female friend, or if the owl had taken it upon herself to go, Harry opened her letter first.

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Happy Birthday! I hope everything is going well in Japan._**

**_I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you — what if they'd opened it at customs? __Not to mention I wasn't sure where it was you are in Japan._**_** — **_**_but then Houzenka turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday this year considering all your mail was stopped because of the Chamber fiasco last year. I bought your present by owl-order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world). Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous — the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating._**

**_There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out, I hope it's not too long — it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for. _**

**_Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your summer job allow you to come? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first! _**

**_Love from Hermione _**

**_P.S. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it. _**

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at that. No doubt his impatient friend had started to get ticked off by Percy wearing his Head Boy badge even during the holidays. Curious as to what her present was – after all, she had given him rather interesting gifts before, like the martial arts book that he had lent to Naruto to help give his Taijutsu some actual form other than street brawl. At first he wondered if she had sent him a large tome of some kind, but was pleasantly surprised when he found instead a sleek black leather case marked Broomstick Servicing Kit. He couldn't help but beam. He enjoyed flying a lot even if he had originally thought the idea of using a broomstick to fly was ridiculous, the actual thrill of it rivalled a good fight. So having something to keep his own broom in good condition was an extremely good present. Though it would have to wait before he started looking into it properly, he doubted desert sand would be good for the objects inside.

Finally, the last post he had got from the owls were the ones delivered by the Hogwarts owl which consisted on his Hogwarts letter, and what looked like a letter and present from Hagrid. He was going to look at the note first, when the parcel shuddered.

Pausing, surprised, he exchanged a look with Kakashi, to make sure he hadn't been seeing things, but when a snapping sound came from it, he knew for definite that it had moved. Not about to open a thing that sounded like it had teeth and jaws to comp with, especially where Hagrid was concerned, Harry quickly tore open the letter and looked inside to see if it would explain something about what was in the parcel.

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Happy Birthday! _**

**_Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. _**

**_Hope everything is going alright in Japan. _**

**_All the best, _**

**_Hagrid _**

"Gee, thanks for the explanation, Hagrid," Harry couldn't help but grumble sarcastically. Honestly, he now had no idea about what it was other than it would be important for next year, so that meant if whatever it was attacked he couldn't kill the dratted thing. Sighing, he took the shuddering parcel, but passed some ninja wire to Kakashi. "Alright,. I'm going to open this thing. As soon as you can, tie it up in the wire. Hopefully if we get it first it wont get us."

"You have weird friends," the copy ninja couldn't help but note, though he unwound the wire anyway.

"You have no idea…." Harry groaned. "OK, on three. One…two…three!" And with that, he unwrapped the paper, and out fell….a book? Harry blinked, looking at it in a stunned manner for a moment, reading the title. "Monster Book of Monsters….?" He murmured, wondering what that was supposed to mean, when the thing tried to flip over and snap on his hands. Thankfully, that broke Harry out of his thoughts and he smacked his hands either side of its covers to keep it still while Kakashi pounced on it with the wire.

At least now he knew what the title meant.

"What the heck Wizards?!" Harry threw up his hands. "What's the point of a biting book? I swear magic stole their collective brains…." Growling, he slammed the book into the ground hard, gratified to hear it whimper. Hopefully he could teach it to not try to bit him –

Great, and now he was losing his mind too. Stupid wizards.

"This better be important to next year, otherwise I'm going to have to teach him that not everyone likes huge pets. He'd probably think the Kyuubi was cute and loveable." He couldn't help but grumble, shaking his head.

Finally, he picked up the last letter and scanned through it to see if there was anything interesting he would need to pick up from Hogwarts. The books listed off some of his new books – one of them actually was the Monster Book of Monsters, it seemed, so he guessed he couldn't clout Hagrid over the head for forgetting hat normal people thought were normal where animals (and books apparently) were concerned. It also listed his Books for Ancient Runes as well, and the new book for Defence Against the Dark Arts, which sounded a lot more useful than Lockhart's drivel from the year before, thankfully.

There was one thing that was interesting though, a form that seemed to ask for permission so that he could go to the town of Hogsmead on certain days, so long as a parent or Guardian signed the form. He made a mental note to give it to the Hokage when he got back. While he was technically classed as an adult in the Ninja World, he doubted that most of the teachers would be happy that he signed his own permission. No one could contend with the Hokage's signature though. Hopefully the Sandaime wouldn't be on the warpath for Harry giving him more paperwork though.

With a chuckle, Harry sealed everything into the containment scroll that his gifts from Anko and his brothers had had inside. After all, he still had almost half a month more training to go before he returned to any kind of village after all.

…**End Flashback…**

Smiling at the memory, Harry stretched a little, glancing up at the sky. Only three more days now before the Third Exam was going to begin. If he wasn't ready for it after everything, then he would never be. But still, he was ready and prepared. He was definitely going to get through this exam and return home a Chunin. That he promised.

**To Be Continued….**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_**Translation list:**_

_(all Japanese words used in this chapter that are not present here have already been translated in other chapters.)_

_Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu - Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique – __This technique conceals the user underground and drags the object of their attack down into the earth, robbing them of their freedom. In addition, they can start another attack. It is also a jutsu sometimes used for torture as the neck can be cut into while the opponent is unable to move or attack back_

_Chidori – one thousend birds – a lightning nature jutsu created by Kakashi when he first became jonin. He taught it to Sasuke in the canon series._

_**Chosha's Notes**_

_I'm sorry for the long wait – hm, this seems to be a common thing to start my notes on. Lol. However, When real life Kidnaps you, it does take a while to escape. To make it up to you guys though I did make this a longer chapter – it was 28 pages long after all, so I hope that it makes things up to you. Thanks for everyone who asked after me though to make sure things were still moving on. Suffice to say though it may take me a while sometimes, I will keep updating this at my own sporadic rate. If I was ever going to discontinue this I promise I will let you know. As it is, I have no intention of stopping this fic, so don't you worry!_

_Anyway, I hope that this has covered everything you guys wanted. I'll admit I was struggling a bit with Kakashi's parts in this. I'm actually thinking that perhaps on the Uchiha Potter Shorts I might make an Omake or a short story about Kakashi and his thoughts on Harry. What do you guys think?_

**_Preview of the next Uchiha Potter_**

**_Harry_**_: After all the preparation, the training, its finally here! I don't care what happens, I wont fail those who believe in me, I will become Chunin! Next episode: The Chunin Exams - The Final Exam! You wont want to miss it._

**_Until Next Time,_**

**_Ja ne!_**

**_Chosha Kurenai xXx_**


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